The principal barrier to breast cancer treatment is late detection because of the lack of awareness about self-examination steps. The Health 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.

The best way to effect any behaviour change is to ride on existing cultural behaviour.

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 Health Purses were given out as a part of Mahindra Rise breast cancer/health awareness drives in remote villages in Maharashtra. We got in touch with local healthcare workers to help set up the awareness camps, which are conducted with the support of CPAA - Cancer Patients Aid Association.

There are no restrictions or regulations regarding women's health awareness messages in India. The normal practice is to get the message corroborated by medical experts. Our initiative was supported and conducted with the Cancer Patients Aid Association - India's pre-eminent organisation for Cancer prevention and guidance.

The incidence of breast cancer is on the rise in rural India. While the awareness of simple preventive self checks is very low.

Moreover, culturally women are not open about their health issues in these remote villages, which is why the reminder medium needed to be something discreet and personal - A 'Batua', 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.

The inside of the purse 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.