In India, 70% of women don’t find useable public loo when they need one. Forcing them to avoid drinking water or hold their pee in, sometimes even for 12 hours. A violation of a woman’s fundamental right - the right to pee.

Harpic launched Loocator – a crowdsourced app that helps women easily find loos nearby, rate them and add new loos. Using the phone, an everyday medium, as the go to point, we targeted women through films and radio while they were inside homes or commuting. Additionally, QR enabled cups were distributed in markets which women frequented the most.

In India, men pee anywhere. Walls, roads, trees – the world is their loo. But for women, finding a public loo is a nightmare. A constant pain when they step outside their homes for work, shopping, socialization, or anything else. So much so that 70% of Indian women don’t find a useable public loo when they need one.

But their nightmare doesn’t end when they find one. 70% of women experience fear and disgust at public loos. Because they are filthy, smelly, sometimes with no running water, electricity or even doors. Unfortunately for women, they have no choice but to use them.

Instead of solving the problem, as a culture, we have forced women to live with it. They hold their pee in by braving excruciating pain, in some cases for up to 12 hours at a stretch. 81% women even don’t drink water, even in the scorching summer heat. Putting their health at risk of problems like UTIs, severe dehydration, heat strokes and long-term bladder and kidney issues. Not just that, 75% of women acknowledge avoiding field jobs or extended travel due to lack of public loos, limiting their own opportunities.

At the core, not being able to find a usable loo is a violation of a woman’s very basic, yet very fundamental human right – the right to pee with dignity.

Harpic, India’s No. 1 toilet cleaning brand, that stands for better hygiene for everyone, had to do something about it. It believes that access to safe, clean sanitation is a fundamental human right.

So, while Harpic was helping create clean loos at home for consumers, one gap that remained a big pain-point for them, especially women, and that kept coming up in research was - the inaccessibility and the unhygienic state of loos outside. In public places. On delving deeper, we found that there was only one loo for every 20,000 people in India. In case of women, this stat was worse.

The brief was to figure out how Harpic can enable better hygiene for women where they needed it the most – outside their homes using media that’s intuitive and relevant.

The objective was to find an easily accessible long-term solution that helps women pee with dignity.

Harpic launched the Loocator – an app that helps women find clean loos nearby, rate these public loos and even add new loos to the network.

Built on top of Google API for functionality and familiarity, this app is created with unique, advanced features that help in loo discoverability and shareability. Ratings and review feature gives women the right to choose the best loo to use in their vicinity while adding feature helps them add new, usable loos – a feature of critical relevance for women trying to find loos in less explored places.

With the #BeFreeToPee campaign, this unspoken yet fundamental problem was brought to the forefront of Indian minds.

Women are the key target audience for Harpic and when they faced a compelling problem outside their homes regarding hygiene, we needed to step in.

70% of women can’t find useable public loo when they need one. When they do, the nightmare continues. 70% of women experience fear and disgust at public loos. As a result, 81% women even don’t drink water or hold their pee in for hours at a stretch. Ending up jeopardizing their health with problems like UTIs, severe dehydration, heat strokes, long-term bladder, and kidney issues.

Harpic’s Loocator aimed to change this. In an integrated approach, the campaign was launched using digital films and radio spots targeting women. QR enabled cups were distributed in the busiest markets frequented by women. Additionally, on Women’s Day, the most used public loos near city’s hotspots like metro stations, were cleaned as a surprise for women.

We urged women to #BeFreeToPee in a four weeklong campaign that was launched with a film showing the helplessness different women feel when they can’t find a loo.

During peak traffic hours on the most popular routes, RJs pointed out public toilets asking women to take a pee break. In the busiest markets frequented by women, paper cups with QR codes leading to the Loocator app were distributed, encouraging women who avoided drinking water to sip without fear.

On Women’s Day, Harpic went a step forward by partnering with two of India’s biggest loo providers, Sulabh International and PVR Nest, and cleaned the most used public toilets - giving women the priceless experience of a clean public loo.

Many celebrities joined the conversation including Akshay Kumar, Mithali Raj, Sonali Khan to spread the word and help women locate their most fundamental human right - the right to pee.

The campaign sparked conversation with a huge 163 million + reach. Indian celebrities from all walks of life joined in including actors like Akshay Kumar, Chitranga Singh, Soha Ali Khan spoke about the criticality of such an app. Former captain and cricketing star of India Women Cricket team, Mithali Raj resonated very strongly with app as did the women activists like Sonali Khan and Rani Ko-HE-Nur who appreciated the app. This led to a whopping $1.03 million in earned media and an impressive number of app downloads of 64,000+ and counting.

Appreciating Loocator for its relevance and usability, the Founder and Director of World Toilet Organization, Prof Dr. Jack Sim, expressed his intent to extend Loocator to Singapore to help simplify the lives of women there as well.

Harpic launched the Loocator – a free mobile app that helps women find clean loos nearby, rate these public loos and even add new loos to the network.

Built using the Google API for functionality and familiarity, this app is created with features that help in loo discoverability and shareability. Ratings and review feature gives women the right to choose the best loo to use in their vicinity while adding feature helps them add new, usable loos – a feature of critical relevance for women trying to find loos in less explored places.

#BeFreeToPee highlighted this fundamental problem.