Growing up in a conservative Indian family, Aditi Gupta never got a talk from her parents about the birds and the bees. As she reached puberty, there was no one to go to with questions about what was happening to her body. The subject of menstruation was to be avoided. “I was told not to talk about it with anyone, and to never, ever let the men in my family know I was having my period,” Gupta, now 29, says. Shopping for the products women in middle-class households around the world use monthly was forbidden, as it would damage the family’s reputation. For the first few years after she hit puberty, Gupta used only rags. So four years ago, Gupta and her boyfriend (now husband), Tuhin Paul, a designer and an animator, wrote and illustrated a comic book providing complete, and completely accurate, information about puberty and menstruation in a format kids would find easily digestible. Menstrupedia, as it’s called, handles the most sensitive cultural restrictions carefully and refrains from explicit graphics that could make an Indian teen uncomfortable—or, worse, get her in trouble with her family. Today the comic has moved online; the Menstrupedia site gets 100,000 visitors a month from 195 countries. one.org/us/2014/09/12/menstrupedia-is-destroying-taboos-and-improving-health-in-india/
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 15:00:01 +0000
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