Meena (character)

Meena is a fictional character who stars in the South Asian children's television show Meena created by UNICEF.[3][4] The show is broadcast in the English, Bengali, Hindi, Nepali, and Urdu languages.[5] Meena educates the children of South Asia on issues of gender, health, and social inequality through her stories in comic books, animated films, and radio series (affiliated with the BBC).[4][6][7]

Meena
Meena character
Meena cartoon
Meena cartoon official logo
First appearance"Count Your Chickens" (1993)
Created byUNICEF, Hanna-Barbera[1]
Designed byNeill McKee
Ram Mohan
Voiced byPromita Ganguly (Bengali)[2]
Rajashree Nath (Hindi)
In-universe information
AliasMina
GenderFemale
OccupationSchoolgirl
FamilyFather, Mother, Raju (brother), Mithu (pet parrot)

Secondary characters of her stories include her brother Raju and her pet parrot Mithu.[6] Her adventures include attempting to gain an education, sharing meals with Raju on an equal level, learning about HIV, how to give birth to a baby properly, and volunteering. Her stories are all advocates of changing societal and cultural norms.[6]

Her popularity is due to her not being closely bound to just one country or culture of South Asia, but uniting the common characteristics of them all. The character of Meena was created by a team of people in UNICEF that was led by Neill McKee, head of the Communication Section in the early 1990s.[6] He chose Rachel Carnegie as the main facilitator and brought in Ram Mohan, a famous Indian cartoonist, Dr. Mira Aghi of India as chief researcher, and Nuzhat Shahzadi as script co-writer and implementation coordinator for Bangladesh.[3][1] She later became the Regional Coordinator based in Kathmandu, Nepal, following the tenure of Christian Clark, a Canadian. Five early episodes were created with assistance from the studios of FIL Cartoons, Manila, owned by Hanna Barbera Cartoons, California. Thereafter, Ram Mohan and his team did the work in their studio in Mumbai, India, using computer animation starting in the mid-1990s. From the beginning, the Meena team consulted with UNICEF staff, NGOs, and government people and carried out hundreds of focus groups and individual interviews throughout the region to arrive at the characters, names, backgrounds, and stories.[1][5][6] The first Meena episode was launched in 1993 on Bangladesh Television in Dhaka.[5][6]

See also

References
  1. McKee, Neill (1 May 1996). "Meena and Sara: Two Characters in Search of a Brighter Future for Women". Animation World Network.
  2. Al-Mahmud, Hasan (16 November 2019). "Lessons to still learn from the 'Meena' cartoon". The Daily Star. The Daily Star (Bangladesh). Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  3. "Meena Communication Initiative". UNICEF. Archived from the original on 20 February 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2008.
  4. "UNICEF and 'Meena' help Rupa Singh find a purpose in Bihar". GoodNewsIndia. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  5. "Meena and UNICEF". UNICEF Bangladesh. Retrieved 23 June 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. Chesterton, Paul (May 2004). "Evaluation of the Meena Communication Initiative" (PDF). unicef.org. Kathmandu: UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. "Literacy Watch Committee of Nepal - Bulletin No. 12" (PDF). accu.or.jp. National Resource Center for Non Formal Education. August 1999. p. 7. Retrieved 23 June 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

Further reading
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