"Touching Ad Normalizes Transgender Motherhood In India, Where The Issue Is Stigmatized", 24 Apr 2017

This commercial is redefining India’s traditional family. The touching short film above, which Procter & Gamble’s Vicks created, tells the true story of a young orphan in India named Gayatri who was adopted by...Gauri Sawant, a transgender woman and social activist who lives in Mumbai... In 2014, India legally recognized transgender people... but the marginalized community still has to fight for basic rights, including the right to legally adopt a child. Many transgender women like Sawant work around the law by informally adopting the orphans of sex workers[.] Sawant saved Gayatri from being trafficked into the sex industry...after the...girl’s mom...died of AIDS[.] Gaytari and Sawant’s emotional story was turned into an ad for P&G’s “Touch of Care” campaign in an effort to raise awareness of the issues Sawant and other transgender women in India face. “Vicks has always been about the gentle touch of a mother’s care...” P&G executive...Darbari said in a statement. With the campaign, “we are going a step further and expounding the importance of care beyond just the traditional perception of family...The campaign shows how people who, though not connected by blood, end up being family through care itself.” And Sawant was the perfect spokesperson for the cause.