Why We Do It

India is home to 65 million+ slum dwellers. Which means that for this section of unprivileged population access to basic hygiene practices like washing hands, taking a bath, brushing teeth or using safe menstrual products is a luxury denied due to lack of resources to afford basic hygiene products such as soap, shampoo toothpaste. As a result, it is very commonplace for individuals to fall prey to various communicable, reproductive and urinary diseases and infections affecting people in large numbers and in some cases also causing fatalities. Lack of good sanitation standards is the sole differentiator between communities that are guarded against these diseases and communities that suffer due to these infections and have to spend regularly from their paltry income to seek medical care. On the contrary, every year, the hotel industry of India typically generates more than 2.5 million bar soaps and thousands of liters of shower gel and shampoo. This waste either goes to landfills or gets recycled, costing hotels a hefty amount. We at Roots through our two main initiatives – Suraksha Abhiyaan and Project Maheena aim to combat the dual issue of poor Personal and Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management, issues that though strongly interlinked with one another, are grave enough to require individual efforts and attention.
We procure and distribute these discarded toiletries and disposable sanitary napkins to underprivileged communities mostly consisting of urban slum dwellers and also conduct awareness workshops on issues concerning health and hygiene. Our vision is to create a healthy outlook towards the importance of personal and menstrual health and hygiene in these communities by inducing them to adopt a lifestyle change through our consistent efforts.