Stand Up Allows us to Fulfil Our Sense of Purpose at a Deeper Level: Pau Gruart, L’Oréal Paris India

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Industry Watch | November 26, 2020 | News

L’Oréal Paris Stand Up

On the occasion of United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2020, L’Oréal Paris joined hands with NGO Breakthrough to announce the launch of Stand Up, its international bystander intervention training programme against street harassment. The announcement was made through a digital press conference held on November 25 with Pau Gruart, General Manager, L’Oréal Paris India, Sohini Bhattacharya, President and CEO, Breakthrough and brand ambassador of L’Oréal Paris India, actor Aditi Rao Hydari, in attendance.

An international survey on sexual harassment in public spaces, conducted in partnership with Ipsos, researchers at Cornell University and L’Oréal Paris, reveals that 78% of women have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces, only 25% of victims say someone helped them, 79% said it improved the situation when a witness intervened. These statistics led to the need to launch Stand Up for women to reclaim public spaces and break down the barriers that prevent women from fully believing in and realizing their self-worth.

What Stand Up does for the brand

During the press conference, the need for Stand Up in India, the implementation of the programme and the commitment to train people for safe bystander intervention were discussed. Answering a question as to what objectives of Brand L'Oreal does the Stand Up initiative meet and what more is on the anvil in this regard, Pau Gruart of L’Oréal Paris India said, “The main objective is to take it one step further and make a concrete difference. Stand Up helps us in having a concrete tool that can make the right concrete difference. It allows us to fulfil our sense of purpose at a deeper level. I believe that purpose is a very important role of a brand - to give back. As we say we stand for women’s empowerment, that is why it is important to take up such a project and make it as big as we can.”

“Breakthrough has been working for over 20 years to make violence and discrimination against women unacceptable. We are very proud to partner with L’Oréal Paris in empowering young people to take action, for themselves, and for others, now and in the future. Bystanders are often not equipped to tackle street harassment and feel helpless during such situations. Based on the expert-approved 5D’s methodology, Stand Up makes a clarion call to citizens to take action against street harassment, by encouraging them to undertake a simple and effective training programme, that not only supports victims, but also enables bystanders to safely intervene. Stand Up will enable women to reclaim public spaces,” said Sohini Bhattacharya of Breakthrough India.

“L'Oréal Paris stands for empowerment in every walk of a woman's life. By removing obstacles that prevent women from fulfilling their ambitions, we are committed to elevating their sense of self-worth. Sexual harassment in public spaces is the #1 issue faced by women and girls around the world, which significantly impacts their self-confidence. With our NGO partner Breakthrough, we invite women and men to Stand Up and safely respond when they witness or experience street harassment. Together we can create a world for girls and women to march confidently forward into a world free from street harassment,” added Gruart.

How Stand Up works

With Stand Up, L’Oréal Paris aims to impart training to one million people in India, conducted online and on ground by 2022. Stand Up will create a community of upstanders, on ground with Breakthrough, through a dedicated training website: www.standup-india.com and across social media. This community will be trained in the 5D’s: Direct, Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, beginning with Distraction, the simple act of interrupting an incident by asking the time or pretending to be lost. By opening the public eye to the scale of harassment women in particular, experience, Stand Up aims to simultaneously discourage harassers, support victims and encourage bystanders to intervene in a safe manner.