Just a mention of the word puberty, periods, masturbation or even infatuation is enough to make the Indian parents uncomfortable. In a country where child sexual abuse is rampant, and teenage pregnancies still risk the lives of innumerable girls in rural as well as urban areas, this lack of communication among parents and children is dangerous. So much so, it leaves the children with no other sources of information but whatever they learn from friends and acquaintances.

This lack of knowledge about issues related to gender and sex poses long-term problems. Even after knowing all this, there has been a strong resistance to the idea of adding ‘sexuality education’ in the school curriculum. An iconic example of this ‘absurd’ resistance is the call for an immediate ban made by 13 Indian states when the Central Government in 2007 decided to launch Adolescence Education Programme in schools. Their argument was that teaching children about these issues went against the ethos of Indian culture.

Today, when the internet has reached a majority of households in urban India, the children now have access to a bank of information on different topics - including gender and sex. However, for the kids living in rural areas, most of these things still remain an enigma. To take sexuality education to these kids in an environment which has always been hostile to such activities is a task full of challenges.

^{Adolescence Education Programme in schools}

The first step

Madhavi Jadhav, a Maharashtra girl living in Bangalore, pondered over these problems and thought of starting a blog to discuss these issues. She named the blog ThatMate - a friendly source of information on topics which are considered to be taboo. In February 2017, Madhavi began writing and publishing articles on topics like puberty, gender equality, consent, etc. However, with a job in Shell Corporation and other preoccupations, she was not able to give it enough time.

“I was living in Bangalore and working in a multinational company. The office work would leave me drained of my energy and even problematic was the fact that ThatMate’s reach was restricted to urban quarters. I wanted to reach the rural children,” Madhavi told CSRbox. After nine months of struggling with her job and the blog for which she had developed a unique passion over time, she finally made a decision which was going to change everything. Madhavi resigned from a well-paying job and moved to her hometown in Maharashtra to work full time on the project.

“We are trying to address the problem of lack of proper sex education in India. India has 236 million children and adolescents aged between 10 and 19 (world’s largest youth population). There is no proper channel for them to discuss sexuality-related topics as parents and teachers are shy to discuss it and internet is not always a reliable source,” she adds.

^{discussing topics related to sex education}

Ruminations from the past

For Madhavi, there was no particular trigger point when it came to starting ThatMate. It was a gradual process - precisely a number of experiences since childhood. “When I asked my mother for the reason behind getting periods she asked me to refer to the textbooks. My teacher skipped the chapter on reproductive organs. Years later, when my niece experienced her first periods, her questions also went unanswered.”

It was this lacuna which needed to be filled up but there was a need to develop interesting ways of doing so. While the blog was continuously maintained, Madhavi - joined by some volunteers - started conducting workshops in schools. Initially, the only response to her questions used to be silence or giggling. It took some time to understand the best ways to teach the children and also making them comfortable so that they did not feel shy about asking questions.

This is how ThatMate started evolving from just a blog to a bigger idea as it moved out of the online space and into the vast offline space with its myriad of opportunities and challenges.

Feathers in the cap

As the organization transformed, more people came forward to join the team. The workshops were now planned in a better manner and it was observed that students were also becoming more responsive. While all this was happening, Madhavi was invited as a TedX speaker to speak on the topic of ‘sex education in India’. The idea of ThatMate started spreading to a larger audience.

Over the period, ThatMate was incubated by various organizations like UnLtd India in Mumbai, NITI Aayog in Rajasthan and Deshpande Foundation. The team is also collaborating with Zila Parishad Sangali District to reach out to 0.2 million kids through workshops.

Over time, the organization launched a website in order to add more dynamic content in the form of videos, graphics, etc. An interactive platform has also been launched for anyone to ask their questions without having to reveal their identity. These questions are then answered by experts.

At the beginning of 2018, ThatMate also launched its first comic book on the topic ‘puberty’. This first-of-its-kind initiative to make sexuality education interesting for the children received appreciation from different quarters and the Government of Rajasthan invited them to publish a special edition covering topics like domestic violence, child marriage and female infanticide under the Chirali scheme.

The way forward

In the short term, ThatMate plans to partner with more schools in cities like Satara, Kolhapur, and Solapur in Maharashtra. The team wants to collaborate with other NGOs and CSRs to be able to reach out to more children in Maharashtra and other states.

“Our long-term goals include establishing a base of operations, hiring a technical team for developing applications, partnering with developers in the gaming and animation sectors, looking for partners in private and government areas, completing our comic book series and offering them in a variety of local languages, and growing our knowledge base with more subject matter experts. We want to reach out and changes the lives of over 1 million children in the next five years,” says Madhavi. For now, ThatMate continues to impart education among hundreds of children and adults on topics related to gender and sex.

Impact-Story is a series on development and CSR interventions leading to some impacts on the ground. If you have a project, innovation or intervention that has changed the lives of a few people or a community, please share a brief note at csr@ngobox.org. Our Team will get back to you after validating the information for a detailed coverage.