Procter & Gamble has announced new declarations aimed to accelerate gender equality across India.
The company stated that it will continue its commitment to raise awareness about menstrual hygiene, through its brand Whisper. According to P&G, it has educated more than 4 crore girls in India on menstrual hygiene till date and will educate more than 2.5 crore adolescent girls, on puberty and hygiene over the next three years.
The company aims to continue to invest in women-owned businesses, after the commitment it made in 2018. P&G claims to have spent more than ₹200 crore ($30 million) with women-owned businesses in India. It aims to spend ₹300 crore by working with women-owned businesses in India over the next three years.
P&G India will drive equality behind the camera too, by creating equal opportunities, capability and resource sharing. Over the next three years, P&G wants to have equal representation of female directors for its advertisements across brands in India.
In order to provide equal opportunity for women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) roles, P&G says it will do the following:
- Build digital and technological capability of 10,000+ women across P&G’s external network (including customers, retailers, agency partners, among others) over the next year
- Leverage Government’s NEEM mission across all plant locations in India to upskill and create opportunities exclusively for girls in the neighbouring communities around its plant. P&G has kickstarted this with an initiative called ‘Venus Betiyaan’ at its Bhiwandi plant, where they are bringing in girls for apprenticeship opportunities and experience on working on the shopfloor
- Annually engage with 150+ colleges that offer STEM curriculum via a dedicated program focused on breaking gender barriers in STEM and supply chain. The company will also work with NITIE towards tackling on-ground, perception-based and opportunity-linked barriers with an aim to double the gender ratio on NITIE campus over the next five years
P&G is introducing ‘Share the Care’, a parental leave policy in India. This will entitle all new parents including biological parents, domestic partners, adoptive parents, parents in same-sex couples to eight weeks fully paid parental leave. This builds on the company’s existing maternity leave policy of 26 weeks for birthing mothers and adoption leave of 26 weeks for primary caregivers.
Madhusudan Gopalan, CEO, P&G Indian Subcontinent, said, “At P&G, we are committed to be a force for good and a force for growth. In line with that, we want to drive equal opportunities for women and girls in education, at home, and in the workplace. In India, we have made strong progress through our initiatives like Whisper Menstrual Health and Hygiene Program, P&G Shiksha, working with women-owned businesses and campaigns like Ariel #ShareTheLoad and Gillette #ShavingStereotypes. Our new declarations will further accelerate our progress through a series of new actions, commitments and partnerships. Promoting equality is critical, now more than ever as we recover from the current health crisis in India.”
The announcement was made during its #WeSeeEqual summit, held virtually.
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