Oh My Hrithik’s (OMH) story began when a group of five college girls noticed the need to create a safe space to help normalise the concepts of self-pleasure, female pleasure and sexuality. Ideated by Mumbai-based Kriti Kulshrestha, Kevika Singla, Vaishali Manek, Suparna Dutta and Mansi Jain, the initiative has gathered massive support since its inception, particularly from actor Radhika Apte. Along with having a budding online platform that features tons of user generated content (UCG), OMH also organises regular offline sessions that focus on personal interactions and discussions with women regarding female pleasure. For those wondering about the origins of its name, we’ll give you a hint: Bollywood’s Greek God and the subject of innumerable women’s desire.
We talk to the founders of OMH about the misconceptions surrounding self-pleasure in India and their advice on breaking free from it:
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ELLE: Considering the stigma involved in India regarding sexuality, what are some of the challenges you encountered when establishing the OMH platform?
OMH: We faced our very first challenge when the topic got rejected for a college project due to hesitant group members. Looking back at it now, we are thankful for the rejection as it encouraged us to take a step forward, push our boundaries and ’overcome the stigma around the topic while taking about it on a public platform. It made us passionate enough to start our own initiative to be able to give voices to women who aren’t able to talk about it openly. So we decided to create a platform where women can talk about their fantasies and the act of masturbation without any fear, aiming to make it an antidote to all the negative feelings that usually follow.
Slowly and steadily, we started getting a lot of requests from women from different cities, wanting us to visit their city and hold an informal session to know more about our initiative. Since then, we have visited Jaipur, Kolkata and held two sessions in Mumbai too.
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ELLE: How did family and friends react when you launched OMH? What have the responses from internet users been like?
OMH: We are fortunate to have our family and friends extend their whole-hearted support to our initiative. Once they understood the topic and subject, they realised the need for this initiative and encouraged us to go ahead. As OMH is a UGC platform, we receive a lot of responses from people, especially women, who appreciate us and contribute to our page. Girls from various universities and colleges also want to be a part of the OMH tribe as volunteers and campus ambassadors, which helps us put the word out easily.
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ELLE: What is your advice for young girls when it comes to understanding concepts of sexuality and pleasure?
OMH: We urge young girls to be confident about oneself, and not have any guilt or remorse for pursuing self-pleasure. It is important for women to be aware about their own body and explore it. For this, talking about one’s desires and fantasies becomes important. One should be able to express herself without any inhibition. Women should not judge themselves for indulging into self-pleasure as they often start questioning their own morality and ethics.
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What’s next for OMH?
OMH: We plan to grow our digital community and reach out to all the women across India. We are also looking forward to have more interactive sessions in different cities in India.
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