How a Mobile Game is Normalizing Periods and Creating Access to Products Through Gameplay
Women and girls in India, like many places in the world, are often not taught about their bodies or menstruation. And it’s not only the female half of the population lacking in menstruation knowledge. This information gap contributes to stigma and taboos that prevent people who menstruate from fully engaging in community and economic life.
A scarcity of safe, private latrines at work and school create additional barriers when people menstruate, impacting their health, development, and access to opportunities.
Could there be an app to address this? Of course.
USAID worked to develop Go Nisha Go™, a game-based, story-driven model that invites users to role-play in a safe virtual environment, experience the power of their choices, practice making healthy decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, and access resources and information, including about menstrual health and hygiene.
Go Nisha Go™ launched on Google Play in June 2022, and, so far, the game has been downloaded over 224,000 times.
In the game, players take the role of Nisha, their avatar, and travel the country in five thematic “episodes.” They meet inspirational female mentors — a scientist, a YouTube influencer, a nurse entrepreneur, and a police officer — who introduce and advise players on topics such as contraception, menstruation, relationships, and consent to help them make choices in the game.
Players based in India can even buy period products directly through the game. So far, CycleBeads, a tool to track the menstrual cycle, have been purchased directly from the game over 19,000 times.
In the game, players learn through Nisha and her interactions with mentor characters about personal hygiene, new feminine care products, best uses based on lifestyle and activity, and where to buy products.
Players also acquire knowledge about the environmental impact of menstrual health products and explore different products such as menstrual cups, eco-friendly reusable pads, tampons, and biodegradable pads. The players are then able to connect to shops to purchase personal health products, including discounted menstrual health products, within the game in real-time.
One scenario in the game starts with Nisha unexpectedly getting her period, and follows her throughout the day as she meets Dr. Aruna, a scientist working on menstrual health and Dr. Paromita, a gynecologist.
Nisha learns how to track her period and the importance of learning about when she is fertile. Dr. Paromita demonstrates a period tracker, and players are simultaneously given links to the iCycleBeads(R) Fertility Tracker App, so that they can access and download it directly.
Unique to this game is the seamless interaction between the storyline with in-game links to menstrual health resources, including a microsite that contains additional resources for players to learn more about the topics introduced in the game.
Other in-game features, such as challenges and interactive bots, keep the players engaged while also checking their knowledge throughout the game. The mini-games enable players to challenge myths and misconceptions, including period blood being dirty, which often inhibits menstruators’ daily activities. In the challenge scene, players are tasked with demonstrating their knowledge by advising Nisha’s younger sister, Chhoti, on whether or not it’s okay for her to compete in a sports match on the day she started her period.
Players also have access to a menstrual health helpline (Hello Saathi) to have their questions confidentially answered. There’s also an interactive chatbot, “AskParo,” that offers players the opportunity to pose questions to Dr. Paromita. To date, users have asked nearly 300,000 questions, with the highest number of questions focusing on menstrual health and hygiene, including: what is a menstrual cup, what are periods, what is a sanitary napkin, and what is PMS?
These questions demonstrate the high level of demand for basic information on periods, a gap that Go Nisha Go is working to address. One player says about her experience, “About periods–all of this is basic knowledge–but no one tells this in much detail. Mostly videos explain how to use the product during periods, but what is even more interesting is the information about what it is made of, what the prices are, and how much time you can use it for. All that was new, it was interesting.”
While Go Nisha Go is only available in India, it is part of USAID’s holistic and global approach to addressing the needs of menstruators everywhere, to ensure they have the information and education, health, water and sanitation services, and access to markets and products they need to experience menstruation in health, safety, and dignity.
Challenging myths and taboos and bringing menstruation out of the shadows through gameplay benefits not only girls’ and women’s health, but also supports broader global health and development objectives.
About the Authors
Kavita Ayyagari and Lina Amare from the Game of Choice Not Chance project, a model for creating fun mobile games where young people discover, explore, learn and play their way toward becoming empowered choice-makers.
