A young couple has embarked on a creative journey to educate the masses about menstruation and are busting the taboos associated with it. Both in their thirties, Ahmedabad-based couple Aditi Gupta and Tuhin Paul are waiting to distribute thousands of colourful, illustrated comic books to schools and NGOs across India. "Last month, we received a consignment for 10,000 copies, half of which are in Hindi and other half in English. These books explain the process of menstruation and bust the myths about it through comic characters," said Aditi Gupta.
A young couple has embarked on a creative journey to educate the masses about menstruation and are busting the taboos associated with it. Both in their thirties, Ahmedabad-based couple Aditi Gupta and Tuhin Paul are waiting to distribute thousands of colourful, illustrated comic books to schools and NGOs across India. "Last month, we received a consignment for 10,000 copies, half of which are in Hindi and other half in English. These books explain the process of menstruation and bust the myths about it through comic characters," said Aditi Gupta.
Aditi and Tuhin are both visual arts graduates from the National Institute of Design (NID). After two years of working in E-learning companies at Mumbai, they quit their jobs to start a web portal – www.menstrupedia.com in 2012. "Our research showed that 88% girls in India use unhygienic ways to manage their cycles and that 3 of 10 girls are unaware about menstruation when they get their first cycle of periods. In remote regions like Rajasthan, 9 out of 10 girls are unaware of this," said Aditi.
"I was twelve years old when I got my first period. I was told to keep this a secret. I could not attend festivities and had no access to sanitary napkins. I used to wash and hide my rags in dark, damp places. By reusing them multiple times, they became coarse, leading to skin rashes," recounted Aditi.
"That was when I realized that Aditi goes through a lot of trauma during her periods. I started getting sensitized towards this issue," said Tuhin. It was then that they built their first prototype. "We had to tackle the challenge of portraying growth of breasts or addressing the issue that different orifices are used by females for urinating and menstruating in a careful fashion so as not to offend Indian sensibilities," said Aditi.
Tuhin said that their team expects to reach out to thirty lakh girls in the next three years with the comic book which will be translated in most regional languages by the end of 2015.
The books are being supplied to non-profits and schools in Mumbai, Bangalore, Kanpur, Udaipur and Ahmedabad amongst other Indian cities.
The 88-page comic is available online – www.menstrupedia.com for Rs 475. NGOs, schools and libraries can write to contact@menstrupedia.com to avail subsidy on bulk purchases.
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