Hullor: Where Invisible becomes Visible

🖊️Sohini Ganguly

Books have always served multiple purposes, be it in the form of enlightening minds or entertaining hearts. But amidst this the most important of its purposes has always been giving everyone a voice, even the ones who have been silenced by the cruel side of life. 

A visit to WBCPCR (West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights) at the IKBF will lead you to the safe haven of those once silenced voices in the form of their Children's magazine Hullor (হুল্লোড়). This passionate initiative was taken in 2017 in light of the thought that there were no magazines that voice the stories of underprivileged children in India and this bore the birth to this quarterly published bengali literary gem.

“The kids who are invisible, how do we make them visible? How to tell their stories, their words, their heart’s desire, dreams? They too have dreams, how do we make people understand that? How did they become who they are today? How did they get separated from their families? Letting everyone know the answers to these is very crucial.” said Ananya Chakraborti, Editor of Hullor and Advisor at WBCPCR, while talking about the victimized and underprivileged children of the country. 

While sharing the details of the magazine, Mrs. Chakraborti shared the invaluable contributions of Mahuya Santra, Consulting Editor at WBCPCR and an accomplished political journalist. “This actually started for the children…they also need to know what Ruskin Bond is saying, what Soumitra Chattopadhyay is saying, what Amartya Sen is saying, what Maitreesh Ghatak is saying, what is happening at one of the Sanctuaries of Africa, what are these Child Rights, what is UNCRC, to expand the exposure of all this, this magazine was started in March, 2017.” said Mahuya Santra about the magazine.

This innovative quarterly magazine is published in March, June, September (Puja Edition) and December every year. As explained by the editors, it is mainly divided in two parts where one part is dedicated to bringing the world to the children through the voices of celebrities and the other is for voicing out the children's stories to be discovered by the world. 

The uniqueness of Hullor intensifies with the knowledge of the care that is taken behind the privacy of every child’s identity, where stories are shared under aliases to protect them from risks. 

Through not just words but also art, a variety of social issues like animal rights, prevention of environmental pollution are breached and highlighted in the magazine as well. 

Each page of this magazine is printed with the hope of healing where every story, every poem, every comic is a reflection of the indomitable spirit of all those young lives who have had to unfairly face dark storms too many. Eight long years after Hullor’s first issue, its continued commendable success that can clearly be seen in the form of their ever increasing subscriptions, is proof enough that it is a powerful testament of resilience and creativity.