A husband-wife duo, Aditi Gupta and Tuhin Paul came up with an innovative way to spread awareness about menstruation a few years back. And now are bringing out an audio visual version of the comic Menstrupedia. The audio visual book version of Menstrupedia is very similar to the original comic. It focuses on the same subject of menstruation with different audio content for different frames.
The comic is targeted at kids aged nine to 13 and revolves around the lives of three young girls Pinki, Mira, Jiya and Priya, a young doctor who educates these inquisitive minds. Menstrupedia provides practical guidance based on real life stories, is well researched and medically accurate and culturally sensitive. The comic is used by more than 7500 schools, 270 NGOs and 1.2 Million girls across India.
“The audio visual version will be helpful for those who cannot read or are unable to see and can be a great tool to teach students about menstruation in schools,” said Gupta.
Almost 88 per cent of women use unhygienic ways to manage their period cycles in India due to taboo around the subject of menstruation. “Even I got curious about using sanitary napkins after watching the advertisements on television, but was ashamed to go and purchase them from shops or medical stores,” mentioned Gupta in a TedX chat.
“I was oblivious about the inconvenience due to menstruation and the various beliefs and customs around it. Aditi followed many myths and restrictive customs around menstruation until she started her work on Menstrupedia,” Paul had mentioned in an interview with AnimationXpress earlier.
In this book, you learn about growing up and the various changes that we all go through. What are periods, how they happen and how to take care during periods. Gupta and Paul have together worked on illustrations for the audio visual comic and have also provided the audio.
Though society is changing, the cultural mindsets are still somewhat narrow. Initiatives like these are need of the hour and Menstrupedia definitely is helping girls and women across the country to not be ashamed of this natural phenomenon. The Instagram page of Menstrupedia posts many empowering and fun posts around menstruation regularly, trying to portray the issue as normal and natural amongst all.
With thousands of copies sold and many shipped to countries including Uruguay, Philippines, US, UK and Australia, one copy of Menstrupedia also lies with the National Art Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.