Rachita Taneja Age, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Profession	Caricaturist
Known For	Being the cartoonist behind the well-known comic strip Sanitary Panels
Physical Stats
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Black
Career
Award	Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award (2024)
Personal Life
Date of Birth	20 August 1996 (Tuesday)
Age (as of 2025)	29 Years
Birthplace	New Delhi, India
Zodiac sign	Leo
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Bangalore, Karnataka
College/University	University of Delhi
Educational Qualification	A bachelor's degree in Mass Media and Communication
Religion	Hinduism
Tattoo(s)	• On the right forearm: A leaf • On the left forearm: Multiple tattoos with some words
Social Media	• Instagram • Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn

Some Lesser Known Facts About Rachita Taneja

• Rachita Taneja was born in New Delhi and raised in Bangalore, India.

• She moved to New Delhi to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Mass Media and Communication from University of Delhi and then she moved back to Bangalore.

• In 2012, Rachita joined a non-profit organization, Geen Peace India, Bangalore as a Social Media Officer.

• In 2013, she joined non-profit advocacy group, Jhatkaa.org as Campaigns Manager and Founding staff member, where she worked on human rights and activism campaigns.

• In 2014, Taneja started her webcomic Sanitary Panels, after seeing people were arrested under the Section 66A of the IT Act, in response to people being arrested for denouncing prime minister Narendra Modi on the social media platform.
  

  A screenshot of Rachita Taneja’s from her webcomic series Sanitary Panels

• In an interview, Rachita shared that initially she drew simple doodles on her tablet and shared them only with friends before the comics became popular online.

• When she found that her work was collecting a lot of positive attention, she opened an official Facebook page for her webcomic on 15 June 2014.
  

  A screenshot of Rachita Taneja’s comic on gender stereotype from her webcomic series Sanitary Panels

• Taneja chose the name Sanitary Panels because she wanted a taboo and attention-grabbing title linked to sanitary pads.

• After her webcomic became popular, she shared many times in interviews that she did not know professional drawing when she first started making comics and learned through practice. She added that she started choosing simple stick figures in her comics because she wanted people focus more on the message she wanted to convey through her artwork.

• In her comics she openly discussed topics which were still considered taboos by many people, including menstruation, mental health, LGBTQ+ rights and feminism.

• In 2015, Rachita became one of the active voices in India, supporting the net neutrality movement. She raised her voice through her comics and participating in campaigns.

• In 2016, Taneja cofounded the Internet Freedom Foundation, an organization works for net neutrality, free speech, and privacy in India.

• She is also an active supporter of Mee Too Movement.

• In 2017, her webcomic series Sanitary Panels was covered by the Barack Obama Foundation in a YouTube video. In the video, Taneja talked about the responsibility she feels to make her content as accurate and fair as possible as it reaches millions of people. She added that she wans to contribute to social justice through her comic artwork.

• In 2019, her comics were widely used during the Anti- Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

• In the same year, as a part of her work with Internet Freedom Foundation, she publicaly spoke against internet shutdowns in States like, Assam, Tripura and Jammu & Kashmir

• Her comics and artwork started getting published in Forbes India in July 2019. One of her earliest publications include Comic: Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train speeds through the mangroves.

• Later, during 2019 and 2020, she regularly contributed political and social issues comics to Forbes India, under her Sanitary Panels series.

• In December 2020, a complaint was filed by a law student against Rachita Taneja after she posted political cartoon on her platform Sanitary Panels that criticized the Supreme Court of India and journalist Arnab Goswami‘s bail case. In one of her cartoons, Arnab was standing between the BJP and the Supreme Court. After the complaint, Attorney General K K Venugopal, approved contempt of court proceeding against her, stating that cartoons was appearing to insult to the judiciary. This case sparked a nationwide debate on freedom of speech in India.
  

  A screenshot of Rachita Taneja’s cartoon about Arnab Goswami

• More than 600 artists and activists publicly supported her after the  contempt proceedings were started against her over cartoon criticizing the judiciary.

• In 2023, Rachita appeared in a documentary series titled, Draw for Change. The series focussed on women cartoonists using art for activism.

• In November 2023, she was invited to the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg to testify about the censorship she was subjected to in December 2020.

• In 2024, Taneja received Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning award for her political cartoons and her support for free speech.

• In May 2026, Rachita Taneja came into news after she released a new book titled Touching Grass, which is a collection of comic strips and essays selected from the last 12 years of her work on Sanitary Panels.
  

  Rachita Taneja’s book Touching Grass’s cover

• In an interview, she mentioned that the idea behind her book was to encourage people to take a break from social media and reconnect with real world.

• Rachita Taneja’s webcomic series Sanitary Panels completed 12 years in 2026.

• Beacuse of her feminist and political cartoons on social media and politicial issues, Rachita regularly faced online trolling and criticism.