In 2015, Chauhan started a project called WASH that works to educate women about menstrual hygiene, providing them sanitary napkins and training them to make bio-degradable sanitary napkins. The workshop is led by doctors to tell the women about biological reasons behind menstruation, hormonal changes, about various stages right from teenage to menopause. Counselling is given to women particularly who are dealing with menopause. Nutritionists tell women and girls about importance of food & nutrition intake. Affordability and sustainability are big issues, which is why they train the women to make their own sanitary napkins at home. The workshop also covers the harmful effects of poor menstrual hygiene and teach about the disposal of napkins. In 2018, WASH started Breaking The Bloody Taboo campaign where, as the name suggests, Anurag and his team strive to strip women of the age-old taboos. During one such campaign in Rajasthan, the volunteers conducted a session inside a temple with women of menstruating age. In another session, Anurag handed over tulsi saplings to women and asked them to nurture the sapling for a month and then see the results. Chauhan started this project after reading an article written about deaths caused due to lack of menstruation hygiene. His cause received support from actress Twinkle Khanna. Chauhan runs awareness programs in many villages, slums, schools and colleges of Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. During the nationwide lockdown the efforts of Humans for Humanity has come as a great help to the women who have been taught how to make sanitary napkins at home as they don’t have to go out and buy them but they can make hygienic sanitary pads themselves at home. They have reached a new level of empowerment as they are not dependent on the outside world to maintain a healthy menstrual cycle. Anurag is an example how youth of India are breaking the stereotype associated with menstrual hygiene by touching lives of those who need awareness and education by honesty, dedication and a will do bring a positive change. Anurag is indeed the real life Padman. Stigmas, combined with financial restraints, further add to the neglected state of menstrual health. The WASH project by Humans For Humanity is actively working in six states and has employed women from the villages, making them financially self-sufficient. The eco friendly, reusable cloth pads last up to 2-2.5 years and come as part of a kit that also has liners, undergarments, soap bars & a guide. Hundreds of community workers, women, self help groups & ngos have been given online workshop to make sanitary napkins by Humans For Humanity during the lockdown. Anurag’s efforts being a man have been immense in making these women become self-reliant.
Other
Chauhan acted in a film as a lead actor, shot in Rajasthan. The film is based on Clean India Campaign, an initiative by PM Narendra Modi. In 2016, he launched the Dehradun Literature Festival, an annual literary fest in Dehradun. Ruskin Bond and Shobhaa De are the ambassadors of the festival. In September, 2017, Chauhan started an online social media campaign, #TheDoorChallenge, to promote rich Indian cultural heritage and traditional Indian attire among youngsters. The challenge went viral and was well received by an international audience and garnered support from many countries such as Australia, Canada and Bangladesh. In April, 2020, Chauhan started India's 1st online Virtual Literature Festival, during the nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus, to promote rich Indian cultural heritage, literature and arts among the people stuck at home. The festival was very well received by a huge audience and garnered people's support from all walks of life. His efforts were applauded by the audiences for taking an initiative to bring out content that helped many during the time they felt low & lonely. Actress Lisa Ray, Laxmi Agarwal, Bollywood choreographer Sandip Soparrkar, Shobhaa De, Sonal Mansingh, Divya Dutta were amongst many others who participated in the fest. In June, 2020 the Virtual Literature Festival was launched as a Poscast series by Chauhan with RedFM on multiple platforms such RedFM app, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify & JioSaavn. In June, 2020 Chauhan launched a virtual series called Women of India in collaboration with UN Women to talk about various topics concerning women. The inaugural session was attended by Kiran Bedi.
