MUMBAI: Radio City, India’s leading radio network, organized a health drive through ‘The Radio City Kavach Story’ an initiative, to increase awareness about health and hygiene amongst pre-teen girls and boys in Mumbai. Ms. Bharti Trivedi, CEO of NGO ‘Kavach’ and a regular listener of the radio station engaged RJ Salil and Archana with some shocking facts about close to zero menstrual hygiene amongst underprivileged pre-teen girls and lack of personal hygiene amongst the boys as well.
There is a certain amount of stigma around conversations on menstruation and sexual health in India. Not only does half-baked information encourage myths and misconceptions, it also gives rise to unsafe and unhygienic practices. Along with this, when there is no awareness on how something as basic as underwear needs to be personal and regularly used, it is a large issue at hand.
To counter all these challenges and misconceptions, ‘The Radio City Kavach Story’ initiative, aims to bust myths around topics like sexual wellbeing, menstruation, and basic cleanliness especially the use of undergarments through counselling workshops and distribution of the ‘Radio City Kavach Kit’. This kit primarily comprises of sanitary pads, towel, hand and clothes washing soaps. The thought behind distributing this kit is to encourage people to follow personal sanitation, use clean undergarments, and make them a priority in their shopping budget.
Speaking on the initiative, Mr. Kartik Kalla, Chief Creative Officer, Radio City said, “Radio City has always been at the forefront of creating awareness on issues that are crucial to society. Educating young kids about personal heath and menstrual hygiene is the need of the hour. Radio City is glad to be associated with the NGO Kavach and be a catalyst of change for these teens through the ‘The Radio City Kavach Story’. We are confident that this initiative will encourage all of us to have an open discussion on health and hygiene matters and work towards creating a safer environment for these kids.”
RJ Salil and RJ Archana of Radio City’s Kasa Kai Mumbai said, “We feel extremely proud and thankful to be a part of Radio City’s team, which has allowed us the opportunity to spread awareness and smiles on the face of Mumbaikars through various initiatives. When Ms. Bharati, one of our listeners and CEO of NGO Kavach spoke to us about the lack of awareness about personal health, hygiene, sexual and menstrual education amongst pre-teen girls and boys, we instantly decided to collaborate with her and the Radio City’s Kavach story initiative was born. It is overwhelming to witness such immense love and support pouring in from our listeners in the form of donations and volunteer support. The awareness drive made us believe that our efforts were invested in the right direction in bringing about a positive change in the city.”
As a part of the on-air drive, Radio City’s RJ Salil and Archana on their popular breakfast show Kasa Kai Mumbai, encouraged listeners to contribute and volunteer support for the Radio City Kavach story. The campaign garnered an overwhelming response from Mumbai city with donations for the kits and volunteer support for workshop training. Radio City RJ’s and team extended the activity on ground by creating mass awareness at various educational institutes and schools.
The RJ’s along with Kavach team visited Shri L P Raval College, and conducted ‘train the trainers’ Programme for teachers. Post which the team visited Narayan Acharya Vidyaniketan, and Shanti Devi Banerjee High School in Mumbai, and distributed ‘Kavach’ kits to the kids along with imparting knowledge about personal health and hygiene. Listeners can watch the video of the activity here - https://youtu.be/2_vPAU1Ejpo.
Living out loud the philosophy of ‘Rag Rag Mein Daude City’, Radio City has always led successful initiatives under its Kar Mumbaikar umbrella. The ‘Kavach’ Story is yet another successful endeavour to educate Mumbaikars about the importance of following personal hygiene and help better their lives. Famous Bollywood personalities like Akshay Kumar, Kriti Sanon, Kiara Advani and Arjun Kapoor have also voiced their support for the initiative.
