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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A website that explains why women can touch a bottle of pickle on all days -Kim Arora

A website that explains why women can touch a bottle of pickle on all days -Kim Arora

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published Published on Jun 3, 2013   modified Modified on Jun 3, 2013
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: Don't enter the kitchen. Don't wash your hair. Don't touch that bottle of pickle. Improvements in level of education and age notwithstanding, many Indian women still end up imposing these and several other restrictions on themselves every month. The belief that the menstrual cycle renders them impure is the root cause behind such impositions. Three young entrepreneurs are now working to bring out a comic on reproductive health to dispel such myths.

Aditi Gupta, Tuhin Paul and Rajat Mittal run a website called Menstrupedia.com. Launched last year, the free website provides information on puberty and the biological process of menstruation, ways to deal with common problems associated with periods and forum where one can ask questions. An entire section is dedicated to myths around menstruation and how they came to be. Though the website is in English, the comic will be produced in various Indian languages. "We are also working on a character library, where if the comic is in, say, Marathi, then the clothes and appearance of the person mirror those of a Marathi person. Since we are creating it digitally, it should be scalable," says Gupta, a National Institute of Design (NID) alumna.

Though work on Menstrupedia officially began only in 2012, the seed of the idea was sown back in 2009 when Gupta and Paul, both students of new media design at NID, Ahmedabad, undertook a project as a part of their diploma course. The two were designing awareness material for young girls. "We found that there is a lot of information available but not well presented in a comprehensive manner to suit the needs of young girls. And that's where the idea of Menstrupedia came from," says Gupta, 28, who lives in Ahmedabad.

The trio are currently trying to scour funds for the comic book project online. They have managed to collect around Rs 2,70,000 so far from 48 supporters. That's a little more than halfway to the Rs 4 lakh that they need. They have offered "rewards" ranging from "Thank You" credits and copies of the book to the donors depending on the amounts they part with. "The first 20% of our donors were very close friends and family," says Gupta, who with her team has also invited volunteers to translate the project. Being online has resulted in a fairly wide reach in terms of resources: a lady from France has volunteered to translate the comic in French and Spanish. Another person from Maharashtra has volunteered to translate it into Marathi.

NGOs too have been reaching out to use the comic prototype in their own workshops, independently. The prototype comics in Hindi are currently available online for free on talesofchange.in - a portal that predates Menstrupedia. It was created during Gupta and Paul's diploma project days. "An NGO from Delhi and another from Rae Bareilly contacted us through Facebook for using this," says Gupta, who is also considering working on audio-visual aids based on the comic.

While this project is already underway, that hasn't stopped the trio from taking more on. They are also developing a periods' notification mobile app. That production, however, is still at the beginning of the cycle.

Kit for visually-impaired girls

New Delhi: Delhi-based designer Sadhvi Thukral has designed an educational kit on menstrual health for visually-impaired girls. As described on the Menstrupedia website, the kit contains four terracotta slides that have tactile diagrams of reproductive parts. The diagrams also come with accompanying text in braille that explains what the body undergoes during menstruation, how to use sanitary napkins and other matters of hygiene. The kit also has a life size model of a human pelvic region with reproductive parts to explain the process of menstruation. The website says that Thukral is "looking for collaborations in taking this project further."


The Times of India, 2 June, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/A-website-that-explains-why-women-can-touch-a-bottle-of-pickle-on-all-days/articleshow/20389814.cms


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