The way in which the humanities and social sciences understand social life has notably changed over the last 20 or 30 years. The power of photography to bear witness has long motivated its practitioners to tell the stories of those affected by social and political conflict and oppression. The dominant discourse in photojournalism today is that it will bring about social change by “bearing witness”.
Today, everybody has a camera and everyone is a subject. Millions of pictures are uploaded online every minute. But as a photojournalist myself, I realised an individual photograph can have a powerful impact but the real power is what you do with it and whom you partner with. In recent times when traditional media mostly does paid stories and deal with political and entertainment world throughout the year, then online participatory news medium is most helpful for our society where everyone can tell their own story. It is our responsibility as photojournalists to use the work to make it the most effective it can be. I cannot stop insurgency or eradicate poverty from our society with photos but I can provide the tools for the dialogue or identify government’s failure in implementing its developmental programme.
In 2016, I reported on Duncan’s Closed Tea Garden in North Bengal. I found people are dying out of malnutrition. I sent this report to PMO and some bureaucrats in my state. As a result, the state government immediately started monitoring its public distribution system in these tea gardens and three out of seven tea garden opened within two months with the intervention of Tea Board.
In 2017, I reported on the harsh reality of migrant children in a brick kiln. This report gave me some trouble, brick kiln owners and mafias started threatening me but I got government attention by doing this story. Many NGOs came forward, the District Magistrate of North 24 Parganas heard my words carefully and the police was asked to start patrolling in brick kilns to ensure child rights. I cannot claim there are no children working in brick kilns but my photographs can communicate the reality to the administration.
In another story, I reported on tales of slavery and trafficking from West Bengal’s alleys. I was told that the police asked for money to register missing cases in Sunderban, people are complaining about lack of employment opportunity drives to trafficking. After getting all these I had chances to talk Sunderban Development Minister and he assured he will look into this. I received an award for doing this piece from West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights. Today I cannot say there are no human trafficking cases in Sunderban but people told me that the police aren’t taking any money for registering missing cases. Some NGOs started awareness campaign among girls in association with Government.
In my short career as a photojournalist, I’ve travelled my own state Bengal along with Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan. I found every Indian village has its own story to tell the rest of the country. Sometimes positive stories can make changes to others. It’s difficult for me or any development journalist to report on every issue. So I encourage youth to click photos, write down reports, publish and get noticed by authority. Advocacy doesn’t only mean writing about the #MeToo campaign or #JNULongMarch. There are more stories to share, more to photograph. We cannot change our society overnight. It’s difficult for photographs to do this work on their own. Sometimes we need a platform where we can pitch our stories. Already, we have some platforms like YKA and an advocacy group to partner with who can knock on the doors of authority.
Lastly, I would like to say this advocacy work is as satisfying to me as taking a photograph. I use photography as my tool, my weapon, and a part of the solution!