Saba Rajkotia
8th March 2020
Menstruation has long been a taboo topic in India. Women across the country continue to be subjected to restrictions and excluded from many aspects of socio-cultural life, because of myths and beliefs that are born from ignorance and misunderstanding. Such taboos have negative impacts on the mental and physical health of women and girls, and their plight is compounded by the lack of information and education about puberty, menstruation and reproductive health.
Aditi Gupta, who grew up in a conservative middle-class family in Jharkand, was familiar with the taboos surrounding menstruation from an early age. Her own experience inspired her to create Menstrupedia, a website and comic book through which she hopes to educate society about menstrual health and hygiene.
Menstrupedia began as a thesis project while Aditi was studying at the National Institute of Design. Working with her now husband, Tuhin Paul, Aditi was shocked at the lack of awareness and understanding about menstruation. Aditi and Tuhin realised that there was an urgent need for a clear and helpful method of communicating this information. They came up with the idea to create a menstruation guide for young girls, in order to ensure that they have all the proper knowledge.
Aditi told ‘herSaga’, “We created a prototype where we explained menstruation through comic medium using characters and stories and tested it with young girls. We received a very positive response. So, one inspiration was this that what we are doing at Menstrupedia has a thorough yearlong research to back it”.
The Menstrupedia comic formulated by Aditi and Tuhin acts as an illustrated reference guide, that provides important information in a friendly and easy-to-understand manner. It has been wildly successful. Today, it is used by more than 7500 schools, 270 NGOs and 1.2 million girls across India. Aditi’s initiative has even extended its reach beyond India, with Menstrupedia being used in 18 different countries worldwide.
The true power of Menstrupedia can be seen in the way people have taken it upon themselves to spread its message and break taboos within their own communities. “The support we got during our crowd-funding campaign strengthened our belief in the initiative. Every story, each poem that a person shares, each voice that speaks against menstrual taboo, inspires me”, says Aditi.
