Mumbai: L’Oréal Paris, world’s #1 beauty brand, hosted a remarkable event at the Gateway of India on 4 October, reiterating its unwavering commitment to its purpose – Stand Up Against Street Harassment. Industry stalwarts, senior leaders at government organizations and celebrities – L’Oreal Paris’ brand spokespeople Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Aditi Rao Hydari, Prasoon Joshi, Chairman Asia Pacific, CEO & Chief Creative Officer, India, McCann Worldgroup, Aditi Tatkare, Minister of Women & Child Development, Maharashtra, Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, and Supreet Singh, co-founder of Red Dot among others – graced the event with their presence. It served as a compelling testament to the brand’s dedication to raising awareness about street harassment and empowering individuals to combat it effectively.

To build this global movement, Stand Up takes its training into the heart of local communities by partnering with local NGOs expert in gender-based violence, in each country. In India, L’Oreal Paris has partnered with Red Dot, Action Aid and Breakthrough to foster the movement within the country. Stand Up is focused on raising awareness about street harassment and training people with Right To Be’s 5D’s methodology, an expert-approved bystander intervention training program pioneered by Right To Be. It is five tools to learn how to safely respond when experiencing or witnessing street harassment. To date, more than 2 million people have been trained with Stand Up across 42 countries. In India alone, Stand Up has trained 608,000 individuals.

97 per cent of Stand Up trainees feel more empowered to intervene when witnessing street harassment compared to before their Stand Up training. More than 9 out of 10 Stand Up trainees are convinced they could do at least one thing to combat street harassment if they were to witness it (vs 67 per cent in the general population).

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“L’Oréal Paris has always championed women’s empowerment and “Stand Up” initiative reinforces the brand’s unwavering commitment to the cause. Through this initiative, we aspire to create a culture and community of respect, dignity and worth. The event at the Gateway of India marks a pivotal moment in our journey with ‘StandUp against street harassment’. We firmly believe in the transformative power of collective action and are positive that together we can make our public spaces safer. I urge everyone to take the Stand Up training in order to equip themselves to safely intervene when they witness or experience street harassment,” said L’Oréal India director – consumer products division Pankaj Sharma.

Launched in March 2020, L’Oréal Paris joined forces with Right To Be, a renowned NGO specializing in combating all forms of harassment, to raise a voice and educate the consumers on how to ‘Stand Up against street harassment’. Since the beginning, this initiative has been at the forefront of L’Oréal Paris’ mission to address the pervasive issue of street harassment safely with the power of the 5Ds methodology. Today, at the iconic Gateway of India in Mumbai, L’Oréal Paris reaffirmed its steadfast commitment to this initiative.

Hosted by Mandira Bedi, the event commenced with a welcome address by Ines Caldeira, Global Deputy General Manager – L’Oréal Paris, followed by an opening act performed by talented trio Fatima Sana Shaikh, Aditi Rao Hydari and Shefali Shah along with Sanjukta Sinha who gave a mesmerizing dance performance. During the performance, the audience witnessed a spectacle at the Gateway of India created through well-designed projection mapping tools and showcasing several compelling statistics pertaining to the cause. The projections depicted the journey of a woman from caution to confidence, a transition that the Stand Up initiative aims to achieve. This was followed by an address by L’Oréal Paris brand spokesperson Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who spoke about the cause initiative and women empowerment at length.

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The evening continued with a thought-provoking panel discussion, skillfully moderated by renowned journalist Faye D’Souza. The panel featured distinguished figures such as actor and producer, John Abraham, Prasoon Joshi, Chairman Asia Pacific, CEO & Chief Creative Officer, India, McCann Worldgroup, who is also a renowned screen writer & lyricist, Supreet Singh, co-founder of Red Dot, and Rekha Sharma, chairperson of the National Commission for Women, who spoke about the significant issue of street harassment and its indiscriminate impact on individuals regardless of their gender. The event then concluded with a captivating performance by Manasi Scott which was followed by a dance performance by the Question Mark Crew.