The Safe & Sure Women’s Health Initiative

Understanding. Preventing. Empowering.

An education and research programme on what women in India are told about intimate health, and what they are never told.

The problem

Intimate health is among the most common reasons Indian women seek medical care and among the least discussed. The consequences are practical rather than abstract: symptoms are endured rather than raised, the same antibiotic is taken a second and third time without a diagnosis, and a recurring problem is treated as something to put up with.

Three gaps sit behind that, and the programme addresses each.

1. Knowledge. Information about intimate health reaches women fragmented, contradictory, or not at all.
2. Behaviour. That gap produces predictable patterns: over-washing, self-treatment, delayed consultation, inappropriate antibiotic use.
3. Evidence. Almost nobody has measured what Indian women actually know. Programmes are designed against assumption rather than data.

What we are finding

Our first survey round is complete. These are descriptive results from the people who answered, not estimates for all women in India: 138 respondents, of whom roughly seven in ten were aged 18 to 23. It is a young, largely urban, largely student cohort, and should be read as such.

• 54% of those who answered reported that symptoms had happened more than once, or kept coming back
• 57% said that with a health question that felt awkward to ask, they would look on Google first. Under 1% would look on social media
• Half were undecided about, or unfamiliar with, prebiotic approaches to intimate care
• 79% believed the quality of water used for washing can affect intimate health

The second finding is the one that shapes the programme. If the first place a woman turns is a search engine, then the quality of what she finds there is a public-health variable.

How the programme works

Know. Evidence-based education on anatomy, the vaginal microbiome, normal physiology, menstruation, recurrent symptoms, antibiotic awareness and the myths that surround intimate hygiene. Delivered in colleges, workplaces and community settings.

Ask. Anonymous question mechanisms, so that the questions women do not ask out loud still get answered. Embarrassment is the barrier; anonymity removes it.

Prevent. Hygiene, sanitation and water-quality education, and recognising the signs that warrant attention.

Refer. The programme educates and refers. It does not diagnose and does not treat. Where a participant describes symptoms that warrant evaluation, the pathway leads to a qualified healthcare professional.

Measure. Knowledge is assessed before the intervention and after it. We report what changed, including where it did not.

What we do not do

The programme does not sell, promote or distribute any product. It carries no product branding, makes no product claims and routes no participant to a purchase. Its research is published whatever it finds.

This is a deliberate structural choice, not a disclaimer. A public-health programme that doubles as a sales channel is not a public-health programme, and a CSR committee is right to test for it. The test we hold ourselves to is simple: would this programme run unchanged if the product did not exist? It would.

Who it serves

College and university students, women in workplaces with limited sanitation access, community groups, teachers and community health workers.

Partner with us

We are seeking corporate CSR partners, implementing organisations and institutional hosts.

CSR partners fund education, research, training, outreach and measurement, delivered through a registered implementing partner, with impact reporting.

Institutions host sessions for their students, staff or community.

Research partners collaborate on study design, analysis and publication.

You can also write to care@neuriva.in.