More often than not, many girls are shushed when they inadvertently uttered the M-word in a discussion but this was not acceptable to Aditi Gupta, a social entrepreneur and the author of Menstrupedia Comic.
She has become a voice of change in the society through her relentless efforts of educating young girls in small town and cities.
Gupta said, "My inspiration comes from every poem or story like the ones we share through our blog that demolishes stereotypes and works in the direction of making this natural biological process, not a shameful process. It is very amazing to see how people have made this movement as their own movement and how school principals, teachers, mothers are trying to break the silence around menstruation in their own personal capacity".
Menstrupedia raised an amount at the beginning of their project through crowd-funding, Rs.5.15 lakh in 2013 in order to produce comics. After that the company has been quite sustainable and re-investing their profits back into the firm.
While talking about their mission and achievement, she says, "I'd like to shamelessly take the credit of making menstruation cool in India, the fact that today actresses are openly talking about menstruation and they are giving out statements like 'don't call my menstrual blood, bad blood,' is an achievement in itself. However, the change we are looking for will come over a decade when educated girls become mothers and not pass the myths & taboos to their daughters."
Gupta had been listed on the Forbes India U-30 list. She has put to good use her degree in New Media from National Institute of Design (NID); designed content & information presented in the style of comics, and a website.
She drew inspiration from her own experience, growing up in Garhwa, a small town in Jharkhand. Aditi is familiar with the shame associated with the act of buying sanitary napkins, and had to resort to using rags.
She is happy the way 'don't touch the pickle' has now been replaced with 'she touched the pickle' jingle. "It's good to see how openly we're addressing this taboo on mainstream media," smiles Gupta.
On being asked about her plans for the next five years, she said that the plan to take her mission further through foreign and vernacular languages. The idea is to educate everyone in other South-Asian nations as well because the subject menstruation shares the same mindset as in India.
Gupta reveals in a conversation to BW Businessworld, her plans to build a kind of educational infrastructure around menstruation, address this issue in the most fun and entertaining way, by using technology, music, comics and media.
Gupta said, "In future we want to address other gender specific issues to ease the idea of sharing thoughts".
She firmly believes that being a women entrepreneur is one of the most empowering experiences in her life. Entrepreneurship can prove to be a game-changer, considering the fact that it's one field where you get to lay down your own rules.
"For example, A woman gives birth to a child in a regular job, she goes for a leave hence she gets a pay-cut but if you are a the boss, you can actually design a way out to bring your child to office. Isn't that really empowering!?"
Gupta strongly follows one saying in life- "Each time a woman stands up for herself without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stand up for all women." - Maya Angelou
BW Reporters
Soumya is a young writer and journalist, with bachelors in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an alumini of the Asian College of Journalism, and finds politics and sustainability intriguing beats to work with.
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