Brief Explanation

The Health Purse A purse that not only protects your money, but protects you from the dangers of Breast Cancer as well. A 'Batua' is the traditional Indian women's purse. Women in rural India have a unique practice when it comes to protecting their money - they keep their purses in their blouses. Could this unique habit also help protect them from breast cancer? Riding on this age-old habit, we designed purses with illustrative visuals of women checking themselves - which served as a reminder to perform the simple breast self-examination steps given inside. The purses were printed on skin-friendly cloth and designed using 9 famous Indian folk-art styles. The 'batua' thus became a purse that didn't just protect their wealth, but their health as well.

Execution

The best way to effect any behaviour change is to ride on existing cultural behaviour. This solution uses an existing cultural habit for protecting money - they keep their purses in their blouses. We designed purses where the inside has easy to understand visual steps to conduct a breast self-examination. The copy under each illustration explains the procedure. The line at the bottom asks the woman to get in touch with her local village health centre if she feels any abnormality while checking her breasts. The purse has never before been used to reach rural women in media-dark parts of the country. The principal barrier to breast cancer treatment is late detection because of the lack of awareness about self-examination steps. This purse addressed this barrier using a cultural habit to educate them and serve as a reminder for regular checks that could help early detection and save more lives.