Aditi Gupta (author)

Aditi Gupta is a 34-year-old engineering graduate and a New Media Design post-graduate from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She was born in Garhwa in Jharkhand, India.[4] She started menstruating at the age of 12,[5] but only learnt about menstruation when she was taught about it in class 9 at the age of 15. In her childhood, when she was menstruating she was not allowed to touch a place of worship, or sit on other people’s beds; she had to wash and dry her clothes separately.[5] She was not allowed to use the sanitary napkins available in the market as buying them would ‘risk the family’s dignity’.[6] She bought her first sanitary napkin at the age of 15. Aditi met her husband, Tuhin Paul in the National Institute of Design where they both worked on several projects together. They found a severe lack of awareness about menstruation even among the most educated people, and that many still believed and followed menstrual myths.[7]

The lack of awareness and education about menstruation motivated her to undergo research on the subject for one year.[6] She collated information from doctors and girls which gave her an idea to start a comic book with three young girls and a doctor as the main characters. She put up the comic books on a website (www.talesofchange.in). In November 2012, Gupta and her husband, Paul started Menstrupedia to spread more knowledge and awareness about the subject. It originally began as a thesis project while they were in National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. The website has developed into a platform ‘providing information on puberty and sexuality for pre-teens and teenagers.’[8]

Menstrupedia provides a user-friendly guide to menstruation, hygiene and puberty and helps break myths associated to them. The aim of the website is to present this information in a culturally sensitive and an easy-to-understand way through digital media. The website contains various comic books, blogs, Q&A section and a Learn section. The comics are available in fourteen languages and has been utilised in more than 18 countries.[9] Gupta prepared the materials used in schools in five states of North India currently.[10] Gupta distributed these comics, in schools in Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad and Ranchi, where the girls, their parents and teachers liked them a lot.[11] Menstrupedia has started several campaigns in collaboration with Whisper India such as Touch the Pickle movement in collaboration with many actresses like Shraddha Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Kalki Koechlin, Neha Dhupia, Mandira Bedi among others. She was listed on the Forbes India U-30 list.[3]

Aditi’s work was initially criticized for discussing a taboo subject. However it was received positively by the majority online and by the media.[8] Menstrupedia receives one lakh visitors every month. Her comic books have been used by NGOs like Protsahan, Munshi Jagannath Bhagwan Smriti Sansthan, Instincts, Kanha along with two Buddhists monasteries in Ladakh.[8] She received criticisms from a Hindu religious leader saying “They might be doing good but they don’t know anything about religion.”[8]

• Aditi Gupta: A taboo-free way to talk about periods - TED Talk
• Menstrupedia - GraphicShelf