Happy Periods
'Happy periods' is a project that aims to remove the social stigma and an attempt to introduce periods in a fun way to young girls in the urban and rural areas of India. The project has two outcomes, the first being the packaging box of the sanitary napkins and the second being the small period's animated video.
This box of sanitary napkins and the video will be an integral part of the early period talks for the girls from rural and urban areas in India. The teachers of the school who are conducting the period talks for the girls can give this box and show this video to introduce periods in an exciting way to the girls along with their usual scientific explanation.
Analysing the problem
I come from a developing country called India, which is culturally rich and has an extensively rich heritage and history. Having said that there are several stigmas and misconceptions because of orthodox thinking. One such topic which is considered to be taboo is periods. While researching this concern I came across the statistics which display the tremendous unawareness in the region and the desperate need to work on this issue.
The statistics show that 3 out of 10 girls living in urban areas and 9 out of 10 girls who live in rural areas do not know about menstruation during their first period. This showcases the mindset of the people to stay unaware about periods to stay decent and have a good name in the society rather than educating girls for their betterment of health. This is all because of the psychology behind periods being taboo. They tend to not talk about periods to maintain their decent status in society.
In developing countries like India and Africa, lakh of education, illiteracy and backward mindset and thinking or unshared information create unhygienic ways of protection during periods. 85% of girls are bound to follow restrictions like not entering religious places, not eating pickles, seating apart from family, and packaging packs of sanitary napkins in the newspaper.
The most striking part of the research made me realize that unconsciously even I had followed these restrictions. Even I didn't know about the periods on my first period. This made me realise that this was a topic that needed attention. Since I had listed down several issues, I then decided to narrow down on one issue and offer the solution to it. I decided to solve the problem of early education regarding periods for young girls and normalising the concept of periods to them. At the same time,
I also observed that all the sanitary napkin packaging was in plastic. Also, not just the packaging but the pads themselves were made of plastic. The statistics show that any average sanitary napkin takes 600-800 years to decay. I did not want to solve a single issue and create a new issue. Rather
I wished to solve both the issues of lack of awareness and sustainability at the same time.
There are several campaigns, print ads and social awareness programmes that have been emphasized the educative part of the periods, talked about the backward thinking regarding this issue and touched on the packaging structure of the sanitary napkins but none of them has talked about the early education to the younger girls and a step to normalise periods for the girls who will have their first period.
The solution
In India, there are several rituals for every occasion. Despite periods being taboo in India, every girl is celebrated with a specific ritual after her first period. This is a very small 10 minutes ritual conducted by the women of the house. This signifies that a girl has entered the women hood and will grow to give birth and now beholds the capacity in running the cycle of mankind.
Similar kinds of rituals are conducted on birthdays. Hence, I came up with the thought to write a period song that has the tune of a 'Happy Birthday' song but the lyrics can be celebratory and educative. The song will be supported by the animation that will educate the young girl about periods and the necessary care that she needs to take during these days. The overall genre of the song will be fun, colourful, illustrative and happy. The motive of the song plus the animation is to introduce periods to the younger girls aged 8-16 happily and positively.
This period song can be shown in the school's period talk session. The teachers can educate the girls by showing this video and educating the girl students about the necessary measures that need to be taken during the periods. I decided to design the packaging of the sanitary napkin as any other gift box which has a very happy and celebratory mood. The pack will be made from 100% biodegradable paper and can be reused to refill the box with other pads. The purpose of this box is to end the stereotype of the pads packaging. It will have a very happy vibe and will be very easy to carry. I thought that just the video won't be sufficient to educate the girls. Hence, I thought of making a small beak-book zine with the necessary information on hygiene, care and awareness about the periods in it. This beak-book zine will be inside each box and can be easily accessed by any girl. This beak-book zine will act like infographics.
This zine will be bilingual with information in English and Hindi(The national language of India) along with a small illustration which will make the girls from the rural areas understand more about periods easily as English is not very popular in these areas and most of the current packaging has the information conveyed in English creating the gap between the information and the consumer.
