Demystifying life changes issues

ISSUE: 133

As Managing Partner and Co-founder of Menstrupedia, Tuhin Paul has been at the forefront of spreading awareness about menstruation in India. The Menstruation Comic he co-authored has been remarkably successful in throwing light on a topic that is often considered taboo, helping to empower millions of girls in the process. His latest effort, Gulu, is a comic book that helps young boys deal with all the issues of puberty.

What were the key takeaways from Menstrupedia Comic that you considered while designing Gulu? 

TP: Making a comic book looks deceptively easy. When we started working on Menstrupedia Comic, one of our big concerns was what we would do after completing the book in six months. The book took us a year and a half, and 12-hour workdays to complete. Taking a cue from this experience, we planned well for making Gulu and committed resources only when we were absolutely sure that we were going in the right direction. We never hastened through the research phase for Gulu, and we were always ready to chuck out anything that didn’t work for our end-user, no matter how much effort we had invested in it. Gulu has been designed to address topics in a culturally sensitive way and is devoid of any objectionable drawings.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected Menstrupedia? 

TP: With schools being shut due to the pandemic, girls are unable to learn about periods at the right time. We weren’t able to ship books during the lockdowns and so we started conducting online period workshops for girls as well as for educators. We conduct these workshops once a month and have also organized them in collaboration with other organizations and schools. In our master class, we teach all that we have learnt over a decade of running a successful period company. The master class has been attended by doctors, gynaecologists, physiotherapists, entrepreneurs, research scholars, gender experts and students from 25 countries so far.

What’s next?

TP: Now that we have a puberty guide for boys as well as girls in India, we wish to take the puberty education drive to other countries. Along with forming partnerships with local organizations in other countries, we are making a major effort to digitize the content to achieve this goal. We are also looking at other areas where there is a significant need for awareness that can create a huge positive impact in the lives of women and children; pregnancy, neonatal care and parenting are in the pipeline. This is a need that we ourselves felt when we had our son three years ago. We experienced firsthand the health risks of pregnancy and the challenges of new parents caring for their babies.

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