Who We Are?
We are 2 sisters Nishka Utpat and Kaanchi Utpat. Nishka in the 1st year college studying Pre-Med while Kaanchi is in the 10th grade studying BioTechnology high school.
We were taught the concept of Menstruation in the school around 4th grade. We quite didn’t know at the time what it meant but shared that information with our mother.
While talking to our mother, we realized that our mother’s childhood exposure/ experience in India related to the Menstruation was quite different than what we experienced in USA.
In a nutshell, we discovered that the attitudes towards menstruation is quite different in the developed nations vs certain countries like India, Latin America, Africa. Once the initial phase of finding out and dealing with the changes in our bodies was over, we realized that they we indeed q fortunate compared the girls in other parts of the world such as India, Pakistan, Latin America and Africa.
To learn more, we started reading about how the girls in India experience it, how much knowledge they have before they had their 1st period, how do they deal with it when they go to school, social settings or in joint families.
In United States, this topic gets introduced while in 4th grade or 5th grade and we want to know how that looked like in India – Also we had this idea that we could talk to highschoolers of 9th graders or 10th graders could indeed talk to their juniors 4th graders or 5th graders and carry on that legacy slowly forward as they move out of the school.
In United States, this topic gets introduced while in 4th grade or 5th grade and we want to know how that looked like in India – Also we had this idea that we could talk to highschoolers of 9th graders or 10th graders could indeed talk to their juniors 4th graders or 5th graders and carry on that legacy slowly forward as they move out of the school.
Motivation #1 – We envisioned that we should share our experiences with our counterparts in India by actually going to the schools, opening up the topic and doing something meaningful.
So we contacted their uncles, aunts about the idea of connecting with the girls in India during spring break of April 2021 – but becoz of Covid pandemic, that trip couldn’t materialize. As the time went, Covid pandemic continued with no signs of slowing down. As a result, we couldn’t make the in-person trip to India in 2021 or 2022.
Since everything was being done remotely (their schooling, extracurricular activities such as dancing, singing etc), the focus shifted to online activities, online learning and online knowledge sharing. We realized that there’s a different way to connect to other people.
Motivation #2 – This gave us the idea that we should start sharing our thoughts, express our viewpoints and experiences through online aspects where we can reach out to girls of our age groups in other parts of the world (and not just USA).
So during Christmas time, the idea came to our mind that we could record our thoughts and conversations and upload it to YouTube. We uploaded our 1st youtube video with some explanations, some basic editing, animations, and also wanted to get some feedback from other girls who would watch them – that became the genesis of why we started their youtube channel.
Motivation #3 – The other intention of creating these kinds of videos was that we discovered that there was a plenty of misinformation out there on the internet. If these topics were not talked about openly, that could mean girls in other parts of countries could get exposed to the wrong info, misinformation that could hamper their well-being – so we wanted to create something authentic and share our own experiences and speak candidly to benefit similar age girls.
Motiation #4 – That said, we found lots blogs, YouTube videos and documentaries. However, we want to keep a layman’s view and convey points that the similar age girls could relate to rather than watching documentaries (which may not interest everybody).
Motivation #5 – Another thought process was that if the parents themselves hadn’t been exposed to these topics in an open society, the mothers (and parents) themselves may have lots of hesitation sitting down with their daughters and talk ab these issues.
So the idea is that our platform can serve as an icebreaker where the mothers and girls can sit down together, visit our website, listen to our podcast episodes and watch our videos jointly as well as open some conversation with mothers and daughter.
We wanted to make our platforms so simple and conversational that even if the fathers and brothers or male members can feell comfortable and help them understand the blind spots that men typically have towards their daughters or sisters.
Thank you for visiting our “Who Are We” page. Together, let’s break the silence, challenge the norms, and create a future where menstrual health is embraced and celebrated.
Contact Us
Utpat Foundation is a nonprofit organization. If you’re interested in partnering with us or sponsoring our initiatives, reach out to us.