India is a largely patriarchal society. Years of suppression have ensured that women bear every day, and reinforce unknowingly different manifestations of patriarchy, often accepting them as habits. Traditionally women have been taught, in India, by generations, our myths, legends, religious texts and cinema that the role of the woman is sacrificial and that of a provider for all else in the family. She is taught to keep herself last in priorities, which ranges from serving herself food at the end- often depriving herself of nutrients, keeping little or no financial security for herself, and continuing to provide for the comfort of the household, even if unwell. The male gender has grown up to accept entitlement, while women, inequality. Body shaming is rife, with expected ideas of beauty and the need to conform to them, for the acceptability of the male gaze.

In this cultural truth it was crucial to ask women to notice their bodies for change, and examine themselves for breast cancer, prioritising their health and well-being even in their pre-defined roles.

The campaign was christened the HIMInitiative, where we asked the men to encourage, coax and ensure that women extracted the needed time for self-examination by sharing one of the household chores. The campaign was launched in October, 2015- the breast cancer awareness month. Powerful action oriented stories attracted immediate attention. Karwacauth- a traditional festival observed by women praying for the health of their husbands by fasting through the day, with no water or food, also presented a great opportunity to ask men to return the favor. The campaign saw influential celebrities jump on to the bandwagon increasing conversations. Street plays were organised to spread the message as wide as possible.

20,250 self-examination tests emailed by husband through the website

2,200 husbands downloaded the self-examination test

800 husbands shared selfies of doing household chores to encourage wives to spend time in self-examination

9.3 million organic reach through social media

670,000 views on YouTube

168 million impressions.

151,896 visitors on the HIMinitiative website

The Ministry of Health solicited Philips to extend the campaign to rural areas as well to a few more states where mortality rates of breast cancer is higher

600 users participated in the day-long activity to generate 2500 conversations, which helped us reach 1.3 Million users on Twitter using #AgainstBreastCancer and became the No.1 trend in India on twitter on October 30

3500 conversations were recorded for #Himinitiative. It helped us reach 1 Million users through 23 million tweet impressions

4 Million reached through Facebook and Twitter

Bollywood celebrities joined the initiative

The news channels took it up

With the truth of women’s habits of putting themselves last, our conversations with oncologists, psychologists and survivors also yielded that women have a distinct fear of abandonment from families, of husbands leaving them, if they are diagnosed with breast cancer- since the disease and healing could result in massive body changes. Culturally, where talking of bodies is problematic, talking of breasts and breast cancer is a definitive taboo. The need was to bring this conversation out from the minds of women clouded with fear, into the open.

Instead of targeting women, we turned to men- the holders of power who could provide women security and assuage the fear of abandonment. By asking men to complete one chore that women do, and encourage women towards self examination, we automatically exhibited the support and involvement men were needed to offer, and help women extract those crucial 10 minutes for their own health.

Philips believes that the world can be a happier place if people are healthy. And women are half of that world they are trying to make a healthier place. Women in India trust Philips as a company that cares. They innovate towards products that create an irreplaceable space in the lives of women.

In India, over 190 women lose their lives to breast cancer everyday. This staggering figure made Philips and us sit up and take notice. Between 2012-13 India had the greatest number of women succumb to breast cancer in the world. There was a dire need to encourage self-examination in women, which resulting in early detection could alone reduce the mortality rate by over 90%.

Was the issue of awareness? Alas no. Several government agencies, celebrities have been talking about the disease and the impending need for self examination but to little avail. While awareness isn’t the problem, we saw a disproportionate mortality vs incidence rate at 50%, highest in the world.* (WHO) This means that out of every 2 women detected with Breast Cancer in our country 1 dies from it. We realised there were deep rooted barriers. And decided to explore and attempted to break them.