Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar flagged off a marathon under the Pan-India event in Lucknow. The actor showed a green flag to the Women’s Day celebration and the event was organized to create awareness about menstrual hygiene and to get rid of the taboos surrounding it.
A private event was organized at Sahara Shehar in Lucknow and the citizen gathered in large numbers from early morning to see Akshay and also participate in the run. The run which started from Sahara Shehar covered various landmarks including 1090 crossing, within 5 kilometers.
The program started with warm-up sessions for the participants. Next went a Zumba session where city folks were seen working out on some sprightly tracks like ‘Aisi Dhaakadh Hai’, ‘Level Up’, ‘Magenta Rhythm’ and more.
Then came the moment, for which a huge crowd was gathered. Akshay went onto the stage to address Lucknowites and talked about the initiatives. The actor said, “This initiative is not just for women but for all men who are here. I would like to request all of you that please spread the message of menstrual hygiene as far as possible so that no lady is deprived of a sanitary napkin in any part of the country. Talking about periods or menstruation is not a taboo anymore. We as a society are changing and evolving, and we should. And I feel great that my movies played a part in espousing this cause.”
The event is a part of 3-year old project ‘Prayas’ which strives to spread the message on menstrual hygiene. The organizers aim to educate girls and women to have a hygienic menstrual cycle through this programme given the fact that only 18% of women in India belonging to only urban areas use sanitary napkins. Actor Kumar is the national ambassador of the project initiated by Niine Movement. He highlighted the issues on the big screen through his movie ‘Padman‘.