Aditi Gupta's 'Menstrupedia' is Breaking the Taboo around Menstruation

We exist in an entrepreneurial society. The term 'entrepreneur' now exists in our daily life. Phrases like, "I want to be an entrepreneur'', are now spoken through young aspirants' tongues when asked, "What is your dream?" or "What is your aim in life?". When we speak about the wide stretch of topics in entrepreneurship, "Social Entrepreneur" is one such major entity in that discussion.

A social entrepreneur is one who tries to inflict positive influence on society through their initiatives. The major goal, in this case, is to address major issues in society and find ways to create awareness, while developing positive solutions for the cause.

With women entrepreneurship in the country covering about 14 % of the ecosystem, female social entrepreneurs have been upfront in addressing issues that the womenfolk have forever been experiencing. "Menstrupedia" is one such initiative.

Founded by ''Aditi Gupta" and her husband "Tuhin Paul", 'Menstrupedia' is a major startup that caters to awareness and sensitisation of periods, which is still considered taboo in many parts of the nation. This initiative produces impactful educational materials in the form of comic books and animated videos which presents itself as an option for schools to use for educating students about the matter. Along with it, they also organise workshops across the country to educate the masses about menstruation.

The products of Menstrupedia have facilitated about 10,000 schools across the country, NGOs and many Government organisations to gain and impart proper knowledge about periods. It is Aditi Gupta's age-long efforts that resulted in the present-day pedestal of Menstrupedia. From being a research scholar at the National Institute of Design to speaking at TedX, Aditi's journey as an entrepreneur and storyteller is one to look at and be inspired. Gupta's efforts in scrapping the taboo toward menstruation also led her to be included in Forbes India 30 under 30 in the year 2014.

However, Aditi did not achieve this in a day. An engineering graduate and New Media Design postgraduate, Aditi is now identified as an author while being a social entrepreneur.

Gupta became aware of the concept of menstruation only by the age of 15, when she learned it in school in the 9th standard. However, she started her periods, three years prior to this at the age of 12. Soon after, like every next-door girl, she experienced the many social stigmas revolving around menstruation. Maintaining distance from places of worship and not touching objects in Puja houses, not being allowed to sit on other people's beds, using rugs instead of sanitary napkins that caused major rashes, and washing and drying clothes separately are a few of them. This led to the birth of an awareness in Aditi's mind about the shame and sense of impurity that every other girl experiences, from the moment they starts their periods. Growing up, Aditi discovered the widespread lack of awareness and education about the matter which later motivated her to initiate her ventures during her research.

Born in Garhwa in Jharkhand, India, Aditi now uses the art of storytelling and sequential art to facilitate awareness, which she noticed that society lacked. She has credited about 50,000 girls with the proper knowledge of periods and trained about 10,000 educators, along with bettering the lives of about 1.3 million girls. Aditi's 'Menstrupedia' is popularly known for its comic book 'Menstrupedia', which is an entertaining and a fun take on period education. The book, which is used by about 10,000 schools, uses relatable characters to educate the reader. Along with Menstrupedia Comic, Menstrupedia also presents a puberty book especially meant to educate boys about adolescence and the many topics revolving around it, which also includes a woman's period.

Menstrupedia initially started as a computer game and then shifted to a board game. This originally developed as part of Gupta's thesis project, while she and her now husband Paul were students at the National Institute of Design. Following it, Menstrupedia got transformed into a prototype pamphlet in the year 2012. It was launched in the Hindi language. The following year, after a crowdfunding campaign, it finally took the shape of 'Menstrupedia Comic'. The notable character in the comics is 'Priya didi', who is a doctor and teaches her cousins about periods.

This book has been fruitful in imparting knowledge to all the schools, which chose to use this book to use it for the purpose. Along with it, Menstrupedia also presents a blog, which features frequently asked questions and self-learning educational content. This platform features about 3000 writers, which is even inclusive of writers as young as 12 years old, who collectively work towards illustrations and stories to change the narrative revolving around menstruation.

Aditi is proud of her work and is content with how campaigns like "Touch the Pickle" changed narratives. This campaign was undertaken by Whisper, along with Menstrupedia contributing to the same. Aditi expresses that the existence of evolving media representation like "she touched the pickle'' jingle, paves way for a better tomorrow when the now considered taboo and myths won't be transferred by mothers to their daughters in the coming decades.

Aditi desires to create an entire learning ecosystem in the vicinity of menstruation with the use of media and technology. She is also determined to address other gender-specific issues in the future. Through this, she wants to develop a habit of free and easy sharing of thoughts among the mass.

Gupta has an interesting take on entrepreneurship. According to her, an entrepreneurship journey facilitates one to create one's own rules. She emphasizes the problem-solving purpose of entrepreneurship. She addresses being a woman entrepreneur as an experience, which empowered her more than anything else. Entrepreneurship will allow one to develop designs to solve problems that a woman personally faces, while also being the boss of the same. This is what empowers her the most. Additionally, she addresses entrepreneurship as a game-changer.

Aditi's take on an important topic like menstruation and her efforts to educate the masses encourages and would continue encouraging the masses to shamelessly speak the p-word and the m-word and accept this biological phenomenon of a woman.

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