From a toilet-seat sanitiser born out of a personal experience to a growing portfolio spanning menstrual care, intimate hygiene, grooming and women-focused nutrition, Vikas Bagaria talks to Woman’s Era about what building Pee Safe has taught him about women, changing attitudes towards periods and why choice remains central to the brand.
Thirteen years ago, a personal experience sparked an idea that would eventually grow into Pee Safe. When Vikas Bagaria saw his wife, Srijana, struggle with a urinary tract infection during their travels, it made him look more closely at an everyday concern that millions of women quietly navigate: access to clean and hygienic washrooms.
What began with a toilet-seat sanitiser gradually evolved into a much wider conversation. Pee Safe expanded into menstrual care and intimate hygiene, while the larger portfolio moved into grooming and, most recently, women-focused nutraceuticals. Along the way, Bagaria says his own understanding of menstruation, women’s bodies and the importance of choice has evolved too.
In conversation with Woman’s Era, he speaks about being a male entrepreneur in a predominantly women-focused category, the changing menstrual habits of younger generations, affordability, the fine line between hygiene and insecurity, and why educating boys must be part of normalising periods.
Pee Safe was born from a personal experience involving your wife, Srijana. How did that experience open your eyes to the everyday hygiene challenges women face, particularly while travelling or using public toilets?
Vikas Bagaria: It was around 13 years ago, and I came from a completely different background. Then, through a personal experience, I started learning about issues such as urinary tract infections and the difficulties women face around public washrooms, including holding urine for long periods or not drinking enough water while travelling.
When I began researching the subject, I realised just how widespread UTIs were among women, including many cases that may never even be reported. It opened my eyes to the possibility of bringing some innovation into this space. That is how Pee Safe started, with a simple toilet-seat sanitiser spray.
But the bigger change came later. When we started building the company more seriously around 2017, I began asking how we could bring greater innovation to women’s health across the journey from puberty to menopause.
For that, I had to learn a great deal myself. I even spent some time learning from a gynaecologist friend to understand what women actually experience and what patients talk about.
My perspective on menstruation changed enormously. A period is not a disease. A woman may experience cramps or mood changes, but menstruation itself is natural. Over these 13 years of building Pee Safe, my own understanding of women’s health has changed significantly.
As a male entrepreneur working closely in women’s hygiene, menstrual care and intimate wellness, what have women taught you that changed your understanding of their needs?
Vikas: One of the biggest things I have learnt is that periods are natural and women primarily want to be comfortable. Someone may have cramps or mood swings, but she may not necessarily want to be pampered or treated differently. Sometimes she simply wants to be herself.
As a women-centric brand, we realised that comfort and choice are extremely important. Partners, husbands, sons and brothers need to understand and respect that.
This also influences my view on menstrual leave. Personally, I am not in favour of making first-day period leave compulsory. I want women to have an equal role everywhere. If a woman needs leave because she is uncomfortable or in pain, she should absolutely have the choice to take it, but I don’t believe every woman should automatically be treated as incapable of working simply because she is menstruating.
For me, it is about inclusion and individual choice. This journey has made me much more conscious of being an ally rather than approaching women’s experiences from assumptions, and I think that has reflected in the brand as well.
Hygiene and intimate-care advertising can sometimes make women feel that their natural bodies constantly need to be cleaned or corrected. How does Pee Safe promote hygiene without reinforcing insecurity or stigma?
Vikas: This is an important distinction. If we are talking specifically about intimate hygiene, the first thing people need to understand is that the vagina is a self-cleaning organ. You do not need to put soaps or cleansing products inside it.
When we talk about intimate washes, we are talking about external intimate hygiene — the vulva — particularly around concerns such as sweat and maintaining appropriate pH balance. But ultimately, using such a product is an individual’s choice.
We don’t want to tell a woman, “If you don’t use this product, something bad will happen.” Instead, our approach is to explain what a product is, how it can be used and what its intended benefits are. The consumer should then make her own decision.
The other important part is simply being able to talk about intimate health without embarrassment. If I, as a man, can speak openly and normally about the vagina, vulva or menstruation, perhaps it makes it easier for others to do so too.
I also think younger generations are already changing this conversation. Gen Z is far more willing to talk about these subjects, and that openness is one of the best ways to move beyond taboos.
Women today can choose between sanitary pads, tampons, menstrual cups, period underwear and other alternatives. Are Indian women becoming more experimental, or do social conditioning and lack of awareness remain barriers?
Vikas: Tampons have existed for a very long time, but their acceptance in India was historically affected by social beliefs and myths, including misconceptions around the hymen and the idea that unmarried girls should not use insertable menstrual products.
That created a very different culture around menstrual products compared with some Western countries, where tampons became much more mainstream.
But generational attitudes are changing. Many people in our generation were prevented from trying certain products by their parents because awareness was limited. When those people became parents themselves, they didn’t necessarily want to impose the same restrictions on their children. That is one reason we are seeing menstrual cups and tampons becoming more accepted in India.
There is also an interesting difference in consumer behaviour. Millennials tend to research extensively before adopting something new and may continue using some of the products or habits they inherited from their parents.
Gen Z is different. They actively want to explore. They don’t necessarily want to use something simply because their parents used it. They ask: Is it sustainable? Is it worth the price? Does it work for me?
That willingness to experiment is changing the menstrual-care market.
Affordability remains a major concern in discussions around menstrual and personal hygiene in India. How can better products become accessible beyond affluent and metropolitan consumers?
Vikas: I think affordability needs to be looked at with some nuance. For families below the poverty line or those living on very limited incomes, even spending a few thousand rupees annually on menstrual care can undoubtedly be significant.
But I find the affordability argument interesting when it comes from consumers with substantial disposable incomes. India is increasingly consuming premium and luxury products. People readily spend considerable amounts on technology, dining and lifestyle purchases, yet sometimes describe spending on menstrual health as expensive.
So, in that segment, I think it is also a question of priorities and how much value we assign to menstrual health.
At the same time, a private brand cannot necessarily solve the entire rural-access problem on its own because the cost of distribution and penetration is enormous. Government programmes, public-health initiatives, CSR programmes and NGOs have an important role to play in reaching communities where affordability is genuinely a barrier.
As a business, our primary consumer is currently the section of India that is already consuming premium products and is willing to spend on innovation and quality.
Pee Safe has expanded from toilet hygiene into menstrual care, intimate wellness, grooming and now women-focused nutritional wellness. What are women telling you about needs that brands still aren’t addressing adequately?
Vikas: One area where I see a significant opportunity is nutraceuticals. Historically, many health and nutritional products were not developed specifically around women’s changing requirements. Often, the same basic product could simply be repackaged or repositioned for women.
But a woman in her 20s may have very different nutritional requirements from a woman in her 40s or someone going through perimenopause or menopause. Women’s bodies and needs change through different life stages.
That thinking is behind our move into nutraceuticals. We want to create and test products with women specifically in mind rather than follow a one-product-fits-all philosophy.
The same principle has guided our wider journey. We began with toilet hygiene and then entered menstrual care. Our philosophy there has essentially been: bleed your way. If you prefer pads, use pads. If you prefer tampons, menstrual cups, period underwear or panty liners, those options should be available to you. It should be your choice.
Then there is personal grooming. As consumers move through different stages of life, their needs evolve, which led us into grooming as well.
We already have plenty on our plate. The opportunity within these categories is still enormous because penetration remains relatively low. So our focus is to keep innovating and continue offering quality products rather than simply entering categories for the sake of expansion.
You have recently entered women’s nutritional wellness with WITHIN. In an already crowded supplements market, how do you plan to differentiate it?
Vikas: Our fundamental belief will remain the same: these products should be created with women in mind and tested accordingly.
We want to develop products according to women’s different life stages — their 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond — rather than assume that one formulation fits everybody.
For example, the nutritional or probiotic requirements of a woman in her 40s may be different from those of someone in her 20s. We want the portfolio to acknowledge those differences.
There are undoubtedly many brands entering the supplements category. What we bring is the trust we have already built with millions of women who have used products from the Pee Safe ecosystem. We now want to carry that trust into this new category.
Beyond sales and business growth, what change would you most like Pee Safe to contribute to in the way Indian women — and society at large — understand menstruation, hygiene and wellbeing?
Vikas: Pee Safe isn’t only about selling products. Awareness and education have always been an important part of what we do.
And that conversation cannot involve women alone. We have run campaigns involving single fathers, for example, around something as simple but important as why a father should be comfortable buying sanitary pads for his daughter.
We also work with corporates and NGOs. We encourage companies to consider menstrual hygiene as part of their CSR initiatives alongside areas such as education, health and climate. A corporate partner can provide CSR funding, an NGO can become the last-mile implementation partner, and we can contribute menstrual-hygiene products and knowledge. Together, that can help take education into Tier II and Tier III communities.
Another initiative is our Zero Period programme, through which puberty education is taken to schoolchildren, including both boys and girls in Classes V and VI.
The idea is to prepare children for what happens during puberty and menstruation: why periods occur, how bodies change and what menstrual-care choices exist. It is also important for them to know that sanitary pads aren’t the only option; menstrual cups, tampons and period underwear exist too, and ultimately people should be able to choose what they are comfortable with.
When boys and girls learn about puberty and menstruation together, we begin removing the secrecy surrounding it at an early age.
So while we are certainly a business and sell products, I believe education and open conversations can help society move beyond taboos and embrace menstrual health as something completely normal.