20 Annual Report A N N U A L OPV ERR VOI EJWE C T FBI NAA NAC EL RAE P O R T 20Goals & Objectives Gross Company Profit From the Founder's Desk

It was the summer of 2015 I was volunteering at primary school in Ghana, exuberant to make a difference by teaching Math and English. At the end of the day, I wanted to use the toilet but could not, because there was no toilet. The instance didn't let me sleep that night as I delved deeper only to discover the long lasting impact of this. During my course of stay in Ghana, I observed that girls in the community skipped school 3 to 4 days a month during their periods and often used material that was highly detrimental to their health. There was limited, often misleading information about menstrual health. The fact that it wasn't limited to that community but was a global phenomenon made us establish Project Baala. Project Baala began in 2016 with an aim to transform the way women and girls approach menstruation. Enhancing awareness, accessibility and sustainability, our endeavour is to normalise menstruation and ensure women and girls adopt informed and hygienic practices towards it.

Since its inception, Project Baala has reached four countries and 16 States in , touched 175,000 women and girls, conducted 900+ workshops spread across 16 states and distributed 525,000 sanitary pads. The year 2020 has been exceptionally unpredictable and challenging.

Despite the shortfalls, we realized that our passion for the cause of menstruation as a team drove us and helped us achieve some important landmarks. Be it launching a financially sustainable model for the organization or delving into relief work. We aimed to reach women and girls till the last mile and none of this could have been achieved without collaboration. Thank you for being a part of this journey that transformed us and empowered thousands of women and girls to take charge of their menstrual health and hygiene.

Soumya Dabriwal 1 About Us

In India, Only 48% of the female population has access to safe menstrual protection leading to severe repercussions on health, productivity and education which plague the 335 million menstruating women in the country. 40,000 women lose their lives to poor menstrual hygiene annually. 23 million girls drop out of school at the onset of puberty every year. 31% women report a drop in productivity and income due to loss of 2.3 days of work monthly.

With an aim to bridge the aforementioned gaps, Project Baala was founded in 2016 to educate and empower women and girls about menstrual hygiene. Addressing key accessibility issues related to menstrual hygiene products and information, Project Baala has developed a comprehensive solution wherein:

We have developed technical reusable sanitary napkins that can be reused safely and hygienically upto 24 months.

We systematically transform menstrual practices through unique awareness programmes that dispel myths and misconceptions.

We create women entrepreneurs to spread awareness and lead sales in their local communities.

This package of solutions, assists us to fulfill our organisational objectives of improving the 3 Es i.e. Education of women and girls, Environment safety with reusable sanitary napkins that last a user approximately for two years and all- round Empowerment of women by instilling a sense of self-confidence and independence through our livelihood program . Project Baala’s environment friendly, reusable sanitary pads cost as less as Rs. 190, this coupled with a comprehensive menstrual hygiene awareness program dismantles all supply, demand and accessibility issues related to the menstrual pads. The organization has benefitted over 2,25,000 women and girls in India, Nepal, Ghana and Tanzania. 2 Key Highlights

More distributions in 2020 as opposed to the previous financial 20.4% year

68.5% contribution to the growth in distribution in comparison to the 68.5% last 4 years, taking the total reach to 221,541 menstruators.

43 partnerships with organisations to distribute our sanitary napkins 43 and conduct awareness sessions on ground

of our distributions were campaign related and 26.28% were 57.1% international and state wise distributions

Online Training of Trainer sessions across India and Nepal that 60+ created 700+ menstrual advocates across the country

Our efficacy research suggests acceptability of our pads is 78% and 78% 76.5% of them the women wished to buy them Our research to understand the impact of COVID-19 on MHM 31.8% presented deterioration in access to safe menstrual hygiene products by 31.8% 3 Key Programs & Indicators

During the last financial year we distributed and sold a total of 90589 [h1] Baala kits with the support of our CSR partners and HNIs. Given the COVID-19, scenario, the implementation for these kits was a result of collaborations with Civil Society Organizations and Governmental Departments across the country. We undertook tri-partite collaborations to reach the menstruators at the bottom of the pyramid. The arrangement involved collaboration between Project Baala as the nodal MHM partner, a financial partner that supported the collaboration and an implementation partner that undertook the on-ground implementation of our solution. This helped us increase our outreach to 2[h2] new regions- Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir [h3] in taking our total outreach in the country to 17 states and one union territory.

The indicator for all distributions (sections 3.1 and 3.2) were primarily 3: Acceptability and Usage of Pads Organic demand and Affordability of Pads Change in Knowledge Attitude Practice towards Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM)

3.1 CSR distributions - B2B Sales Program 75 Over the last financial year, Project Baala was able to achieve 20.4% more distribution as opposed to the 50 previous financial year. Overall, we contributed 68.5% to the growth in distribution in comparison to the last 4 25 years, taking the total reach to 221,541 beneficiaries. This program was possible with the help of our business to

0 business transactions with our CSR partners. Baala’s 1 0 2 th -2 - 9 0 w solutions i.e. our reusable sanitary napkin kit and 1 2 ro 0 0 G 2 2 r Y Y a F F e Y awareness sessions were disseminated in communities 4 Fig 1: Percentage growth of the organisation where the need for intervention was high.

3.1.a. Campaign related distributions under CSR Partnership Campaign Related Other Small Distributions 57.1% Distributions 16.62% This year, given the restrictions in the community reach. We uniquely leveraged online campaigns to generate awareness about menstrual hygiene in urban communities whilst garnering support for our impact on-ground. We reached 51,400 menstruators with the help of 2 major social media campaigns- Azadi for me and Onefor21. State-Wise Distributions 26.28% These again focused on reaching out to women across the country in the months of August 2020 and February, 2021. Campaigns contributed a high 57.1% of the total Fig 2: B2B finance and sales distribution program distributions. The campaign distributions were undertaken with the support of our CSR Partners. Azadi for Me

Azadi for me campaign was designed to generate awareness on the education, health, environmental and financial loss caused due to poor MH practices. We motivated individuals to share our informational posts on their social media profiles and incentivized them by providing one Baala Sanitary Napkin kit to an underprivileged menstruator for every share. The campaign ran for a month an and saw the participation of celebrities like Boman Irani and Mandira Bedi. We were able to distribute 50,000 sanitary Napkins in 16 locations of Mumbai which were Thane, Wadala, Dharavi, Kharghar, TISS, Mulund, Mankhurd, Vashi, Vashi Naka, Kurla, Matunga, Transit Camp, Thakkar Bappa, Lokhande Marg, Jai Ambe Nagar, Shivaji Nagar and Malad.

One for '21

The Onefor’21 campaign was designed to celebrate the spirit of collaboration for safe MHM across the country for 2021. We launched an online campaign for registration and collaborated with 7 organisations in Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi-NCR. Our solution as described involves training of master trainers such as the field associates of these organizations. These trainings were undertaken by our trained cadre of 25 young girls from across the country known as Baala Bosses. These master trainers then conducted menstrual Hygiene awareness sessions in their communities along with distribution of Baala kits in their respective communities.

Campaign Name Locations Quantity

Azaadi for Me Mumbai 50,000

Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya One for '21 1,400 Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi- NCR 3.1.b. International and state-wise distributions under CSR Partnership

23,280 distributions were done with the support of CSR Partners. This accounts for 26.28% of the total distributions. This implementation for the same was undertaken with help of various national and international grassroots organizations and government agencies. These included Women and Child Development (WCD) department of Delhi Government, Akshay Patra Foundation, Aga Khan Rural Support Program, CG Net Swara, Chaitanya Wise, The Probe, and 8 Schools of Alwar. We also covered a distribution in by Lion’s Club Udaan under CSR partnerships. Just like our engagement in the campaign-related distributions, this also involved training of field associates at grassroots level by Baala Bosses who later conducted awareness sessions with the beneficiaries at their local level.

Name of Organization Locations Quantity

WCD, Delhi Government Delhi 4400

Akshay Patra Foundation Jaipur, Delhi 4000

Aga Khan Rural Support Bihar 5000 Program

CG Net Swara Chattisgarh 3000

Chaitanya Wise Madhya Pradesh 5000

The Probe Delhi 340

8 Alwar Schools, Rajasthan Alwar 1200

Lion’s Club Udaan Kathmandu 340

HIV Alliance Pan India 400

Total 23,280 3.1.c. Other small B2B related distributions

Certain partner organizations and individuals engage in small purchases to reach out to menstruators at the last mile. In this case either the organization/individual has a catchment with a suitable needs assessment, or they ask Project Baala to look for the population in need. Once the locations and requirements are identified, the organization/individual purchases the stock from us. Then the organization/individual either does the implementation on its own or partners with an on- ground organization to disseminate the Baala Solution. This is mostly followed by a training session on MHM awareness by Baala Bosses and then distribution in the community. Our prominent partners for this were Shakti Shalini, SAI Foundation, SAGE and Shades of Happiness Foundation.This year, we were also able to reach out to menstruators in shelter homes in Delhi and Kolkata along with some menstruators across the country as a part of our COVID-relief measures. This set of distributions contributed to 16.6% of the total distributions in the financial year.

3.3 Direct Sales Program

We have three models of operation under our direct sales program

Baala Associates Model Brick and Mortar Selling model

This model entails setting of an incentive-based Baala pads were placed in rural pockets in livelihood structure for village level women. Alwar district (Rajasthan) near Jamshedpur These women could be village level shop (Jharkhand) by our sales executives. These owners, factory workers, ASHAs who have were sold via retailers through a brick-and- basic communication and technological skills. mortar model. The sales in Jamshedpur They will be called the Baala Associates. This happened through one shop while in Alwar it model allows the associates to earn a direct was either sold to or given as a sample to 41 margin of 15% on each unit sold. The model shops and 3 distributors. was launched in the Month of March. Subsidy based CSR partnership Model

Within the ambit of this model, CSR partners buy Baala Pads at Rupees 190. The pad is then sold in communities at subsidised rates with the help of village level workers and entrepreneurs. The model was launched and experimented with the CSR wing of DCM Shriram this year. As a part of the programme, 500 Baala kits were purchased by them which were then sold at Rupees 110 by the village level workers and entrepreneurs. With the given amount the cost of 300 pads was recovered which will be re- invested in Baala Pads.

Img: Baala Associates Meeting in Progress 3.4 Research

3.4.1 COVID-19 Research Study 3.4.2 Solution Efficacy Research COVID-19 resulted in an apparent reduction/elimination The fourth important program was the completion of access to Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) of the research to test the efficacy of our two- products and facilities, adoption of unhygienic menstrual pronged solution at Baala. An end line study took management practices even by healthcare workers, place at the end of February at the end of 18 decrease in access to menstrual-related knowledge, months. The intervention was completed in increase in the risk of occurrence and severity of several September, 2019. A three armed quasi- stress-related menstrual disorders, and a shift of public experimental design was created to understand focus from menstrual health and wellbeing promotion the impact of the intervention. The complete (Ajari, 2020). Our study aimed to add to the literature by Baala solution was disseminated in arm 1, arm 2 studying the impact of COVID-19 on MHM and the impact involved only distribution of Baala sanitary napkin of an intervention conducted by Project Baala to reduce kits and the third arm was defined as the control MHM adversities owing to COVID-19. We collated data of arm. The results were leveled against a few basic 368 women from the 20 clusters of Delhi to study their indicators for both patterns and the impact of the intervention. We undertook a quantitative study to understand the Acceptability and Usage of pads patterns in the community. The sample of women and Preference when given a choice amongst girls was based on convenience sampling. We surveyed other absorbent options women and girls over a phone call for which oral consent To test the efficacy of the awareness sessions, was taken before administering the survey. Project Baala following indicators were looked at: conducted a national level talk to disseminate findings of Improvement in Knowledge, attitude and the research study. This had an esteemed set of Practice (KAP) related to MHM panelists including Director of Women and Child Retention of workshops Development (WCD) department, Government of NCT Dr Rashmi Singh, Deputy Director Centre for Advocacy and "At Baala, we believe in a data-driven Research Ms Juhi Jain and feminist activist Professor approach to ensure a holistic and well- Indu Prakash Singh. rounded intervention that caters the needs of menstruators. Last year was critical from a data stand point as we reached out to thousands of menstruators across India to understand our impact and feedback in detail"

Uttara Seshu Strategy and Research Lead

3.4.3 Market Research

Along with this, we were also able to conduct market research. This was undertaken to comprehend product perception, acceptability and affordability amongst the rural women of . The survey was conducted in two major blocks of Loni and Haridwar. 4.1.2 Overall organic demand and affordability

76.5% of women quoted that they would like to buy these pads after 1.5 years. 49.4% of women wish to Organic Demand buy these pads at 190 rupees. Again only 45% women in rural India would prefer buying these pads at 190 as opposed to 55% of women in urban areas. Most women quote 100-120 as the perceived price Affordability of the product. The price-perception is also a product of the fact that they only have to spend 40 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% rupees a month as up-front cost for disposable pads. Fig 6: Overall Product demand and Affordability

61.6% of women appeared satisfied with 3 pads as a quantity. This varies region-wise, damper and wetter regions demand higher pad requirement as opposed to drier regions. Some women also prefer this due to heavier bleeding and habit of changing early. 79.5% women also preferred these pads over disposable pads. Again a slight rural-urban divide can be observed as 80% women preferred Baala Pads in rural areas as opposed to 72 % in urban areas. The reasons could mainly be linked to lack of clean water to wash pads and lack of space/open areas to dry them in peri-urban fringes of the country, as the intervention was restricted to slums. 4.1.3 Change in Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP)

We were able to disseminate MHM related awareness in about 90,000 menstruators across the country. We were 100% able to achieve this with the help of our digitised content, Mobile Application, online training sessions and illustration 75% books. The move to digitize was inspired by COVID. With the help of our sessions we were able to create 700+ 50% Menstrual Advocates across the country. Our sessions helped improve menstrual knowledge amongst women by 84%. 25% 12% of menstruators considered menstruation to be a curse before our intervention. Post intervention 100% of 0% e n s menstruators believed menstruation to be a biological g o e d ti ic le p ct phenomenon. It was also observed that the 87% w e a o rc r n e P participants found our sessions comprehensible and it K P M M in H H e M also boosted their confidence. About 81% of the g M n in d a e e h g participants found the session helpful as it helped them v C n o a r h get rid of unsafe menstrual hygiene practices such as p C Im using soap to clean their genitals during menstruation. Fig 7: Overall KAP Change 80% 90K 700+

Women prefer Baala Pads Were given online or offliine Menstrual Advocates over disposable Pads Menstrual awareness. Created across India 4 Project Progress and Analysis

4.1 Progress and Analysis achieved under Baala distributions

As mentioned in the previous section, the distribution program is assessed around three major indicators. Over the last year, we have been able to attain feedback of 400 menstruators on our solution. The findings for the same are below.

4.1.1 Acceptability and Usage

Overall the pads have a high acceptability of about 78% in both rural and urban areas cumulative. About 67% of women are using the pads for 6 months. Though, a slight rural-urban divide can be noticed here as 49% women in urban India are seen using the pads mostly for 3 months as opposed to their rural counterparts who are observed to be using it for longer. This can be the case as the absorbent 78% choices available in urban areas could be higher as opposed to rural. Though, a reason for the high preference is that the pads solve the problem of disposability as 31% have cited that as a reason overall for preference. 90% of the women find these pads comfortable over all. Fig 3: Acceptability of Pads

100 50%

75 40%

30% 50

20% 25 10%

0% 0 l a in st 1 e Bihar Delhi Rajasthan s k o n n o p C a o sp a th N i N D g re n o yi u M B Fig 5: State-wise Acceptability, 6 month usage and % Fig 4: Reasons for Pad Acceptability citing more than 1 reason for acceptability 4.2 Progress and Analysis under Baala’s research Program

4.2.1 Baala's COVID-19 study

31.8% of women reported restricted access to menstrual 80% products and an overwhelming proportion 61.6% cited limited financial resources as the reason. During the lockdown, the 60% access to school supply was disrupted for 80% of the girls. During the lockdown, 27.4% of the respondents had to use alternative methods for their menstrual needs such as old 40% cloth lying at home due to the pandemic-induced scarcity. Results of our intervention suggest that of the 62.8% women 20% who have used the Baala pads at least once, 96.5% of them reported that the reusable pads have increased their comfort 0% level with regard to using menstrual products and about 86% n ly e p m p o u l s women urged that this usage has facilitated mobility and w o y o b h d c improved participation in activities. Owing to these benefits, e s c n fa o ti n ic 94.8% respondents find the Baala pads to be reliable and 81% io tr ct s ri e st R would continue using them after the pandemic, pointing out e R to the wide acceptance of sustainable menstrual hygiene products by all. Fig 8: COVID Induced Restriction in Access of Sanitary Napkins 4.2.2 Market Research

47% of the 200 women we surveyed still use cloth and 38% of them use both cloth and disposables. Surprisingly, 5% of them even use reusable napkins and about 77% of them were aware of reusables. In fact, about 30% of the women find disposable sanitary napkins expensive. About 30% of the women buy sanitary napkins themselves from the nearest Kirana Store. After looking at the product, about 60% of women said that they would like to use Baala Pads and 59% would want to buy it. About 53% were ready to also buy the product for 190. 63% even quoted that other women in the family would also like to use these pads. The ones that said they couldn’t buy it were because they found the upfront cost high and were also uncomfortable with washing it.

Product Demand in Uttar Pradesh

Product Affordability in Uttar Pradesh 5 Learnings

We saw a healthy start to 2020, with numerous implementations underway and our flagship research study on its way to completion in March 2020. The pandemic has been dynamic and intense for all of us at Baala. As an organization, we have realized there is no instruction manual to navigate through these tough times, but we put in our best effort to adapt to this new reality slowly and steadily. We did whatever it took to support the lives of those who have been impacted. It is important to remember that for millions of women and girls across India their primary duty lies towards the welfare of their families and young ones. Covid-19 has undeniably revealed such inequalities and inefficiencies in our social and economic fabric, that forces the women of the household to deprioritize their menstrual hygiene needs. However, amid the crisis, there was also a sense that a window of opportunity was opening; opportunity to realign and rework our systems. We sprung into action and with the learnings from this last year, we are excited to take on 2021.

Power of Collaborations If there is one thing that was made clear last year, it is that we are one world, not only interconnected but also interdependent. It is only by working as a collective, striving to solve a problem together, can we truly create sustainable impact. As an organization that works directly with its beneficiaries, with the advent of crisis and subsequent lockdown, we took a leap by partnering with 17 new organizations to implement our solution on-ground. This not only entailed a rigorous process of identifying and on-boarding similar-valued enterprises but also trusting them to perfectly implement our intervention in their communities. Having learnt from these experiences, we will see many more such partnerships in 2021 pushing our agenda of making sustainable menstruation a reality for all. Digitization – The Way Forward

Our impact numbers reflect something deeper than the menstruators we’ve reached. Approximately 225,000 beneficiaries equal 225,000 conversations we’ve had over the last 3 years. This has been possible due to our wide network of Baala Bosses who have extensively traveled across rural India. Last year forced us to realign our strategies surrounding information dissemination. With restrictions on social gatherings and interactions, we completely digitized our IEC offering to ensure no beneficiary is deprived of a complete Baala solution. Our workshop material is now freely available in byte-sized videos which can easily be accessed on Whatsapp and Youtube. This is complemented by an illustration handbook for regions where penetration of smartphones and internet is low. In 2021, we hope to capitalize on the 36% growth expected in the penetration of smartphones in rural India. This will translate into further integration of digital assets and technology in our offerings - ranging from creating an app to track our Baala Associates model to providing assistance to our last mile consumers to get easy access to our repository of menstrual hygiene related information.

Data Driven Decision Making "We envision a world where menstruators in all communities We at Baala have always believed in a bottom-up have an agency over their body, approach to our solution. Having directly met education and career, where their decisions are not limited to the approximately 225,000 beneficiaries which choice of menstrual absorbent or the represent our target market perfectly, we give a lack thereof" lot of importance to not only collecting valuable Aradhana Rai Gupta, Co-Head feedback but also continuously feeding that into bettering our offerings. In 2020, we made the strategic decision to study 10% of any community we work with. This entails a detailed research study pre and post-intervention covering indicators across current practices and usage, awareness levels, financial capacity and health- seeking behaviors. This practice has helped us understand our communities better, while also giving us the confidence that our intervention is the need of the hour to improve menstrual hygiene conditions in rural India. We are thrilled to implement the same strategy in our Baala Associates Model. The first 2 years post the launch of our new model will be extremely crucial and will demand tremendous focus on research and impact evaluations. We are already equipping ourselves to take on all that is to come and we look forward to sharing our learnings with you next year. 6 Way Forward

Impact Target

Our goal is to reach 154,800 menstruators by April 2022. This is a 78.6% growth from last year and is projected to enable us to achieve our target of reaching 2 million menstruators by 2025. 15% of our target will be achieved through the launch of our new Baala Associate model of direct sales namely in the states of Rajasthan, Delhi, and Bihar. Smaller pilots of the Baala Associate model will also be conducted in other states like Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and UP. The remaining 75% of the target will be achieved with the support of our corporate partners and other B2B partner organizations. The implementation of this target will be done both directly by Project Baala and through partnerships with other grassroot organizations. Product Innovation

Menstrual Absorbent : 2021-22 will also be a crucial year for the expansion of our product offering. This financial year will mark our commitment to innovation via the launch of our association with technology partners based in Europe. This partnership has been contracted to build a unique reusable sanitary pad that can be reused for five years.

IEC Content: With an aim to become a one stop shop for all menstruators and stakeholders in the MHM space, Baala will launch a wide range of curriculums on menstruation that caters to the needs of different groups and identities of individuals. Location Expansion

National : Our interventions will not be limited to any specific location especially with our BTB target. We are hoping to add new states from the North East and also deeply expand our impact footprint in South of India. This will allow Project Baala to have more holistic data on menstrual hygiene practices as well as the impact of our solution from across the country. International : After a year of halting our international operations, we are on track to re-launch our projects in Nepal and Ghana with our partner organisations in both the countries. Product Innovation

Implementation The pandemic integrated a huge component of localised partnerships for the organisation. We will continue our collaborative approach in 2021-22 and work with a minimum of 35 rural partners to deliver our IEC modules and sanitary napkins across India

Associate Model In addition to creating Baala’s in depth network of direct associates in the communities, we will also be partnering with existing women’s networks via organisations such as SEWA, Haqdarshak to assess the effectiveness of launching local sales through partnerships. This will be a pilot with the main aim of learnings for a full scale launch in the following year

Knowledge Partnerships As we expand our menstrual hygiene curriculum this year, we will engage with different partners to implement the curriculums. For example: We are partnering to deliver modules with Simply Sport Foundation for female athletes and coaches and Shahi Exports for Factory workers. The target is to increase these partnerships to cater to a diverse audience and make our curriculum more inclusive. Hiring Plan

Employees Currently Project Baala has seven full time employees and 40+ volunteers. This is expected to grow to nine full time employees and 50+ volunteers

Fellowship Project Baala has launched its flagship fellowship programme in 2021. This first fellowship will be a 6 month virtual engagement with 8 fellows from across India. The intention of the fellowship is to encourage the exchange of new ideas and perspectives within the organization and nurture a relationship between urban professionals and rural masses. www.projectbaala.com

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