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Nivedan shares some perspectives on investigative journalism and writes on the importance of maintaining contacts with the activists who work with the people who are exploited, with reference to his rare visit to a quarry.
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Very rarely does one get chances for capturing an exploitative situation. The exploiters never permit outsiders, especially photographers, documentary film makers or the media. There are investigative journalists who do muckraking in such situations. I met one Ms, Madhumita Dutta in Orissa. She was from The Other Media, Madras branch. We were there in the inauguration of an agitation.
The POSCO SEZ was coming up in the Jagatsinghpur district. So the activists and the people to be displaced were raising slogans in front of the collector’s office. Finally they stormed into it. However, the collector had left earlier. The protest ended up in giving the demands to the Assistant Collector. However the agitation continued in the villages. The villagers had put up check posts of their own to prohibit the outsiders, especially POSCO and government officials from entering the village. The situation was tense, as they had already kept a few Korean nationals working for POSCO as hostages. The government from its side had engaged the armed police force in the area to keep watch over the area. Going into the villages would be dangerous, as neither the guards nor the villagers would recognize the intruders. So we decided not to go that night to the villages.
But Madhu spoke to an activist who goes to the village regularly and got on to the vehicle and without any hesitation she entered the village that night. Then she collected stories and took photos also. She came back in the morning to inform us that the tension had reduced as the hostages were released. We went there to find out that it was a very tricky situation. There were more than five hundred pairs of suspicious eyes watching us and we were let in only when they were able to confirm that we were not foes. I wonder at the investigative journalists and their courage. More than that, their ability to get news and photos at such situations is amazing.
I got a lifetime opportunity of taking pictures in a quarry. We went to an organization by name Santulan. They were working with quarry workers. They conduct a school for the quarry children. After interacting with the children, we went to the quarry to see the environment in which they were working. The vision was obstructed by the dust there. We went closer to find a giant crater that was made by quarrying. There were hundreds of people working in inhuman working conditions. Some of them were breaking stones ten hours a day! Some had to cut the stones from above so that it can be collected 150 feet below. They were in the edges without any safety helmets or gloves or safety ropes. There was moving gravel under their feet. One slip would bring a sad end to their life.
They were bonded labourers who have been working for generations. They had been given accommodation in houses built with stones. One may be carried away by the thought that stone houses means something like the buildings of Ferguson College or that of Madurai Medical College. But imagine igloos that are made of stone. The houses are like that. The roof was made of tin. It was literally a den without ventilation. Air does not come in, but rain water certainly does. One has to crawl in and ovoid getting up, because it will crash open the roof. I went in to take a few pictures. There are no words to describe it. One can just look at the pictures and find out. It is fortunate that I am able to bring out this injustice to the attention of a broader audience.
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| Quarry |
But I got it clear both from Madhu and my own experience that one has to establish contact with the activists who are fighting with the people who face injustice. It is the best way to capture injustice without facing some serious risk as the activists have access to them. One has to go casually as a visitor who came for a field visit through that organization and get the pictures in due course of the visit. Presenting oneself as a person who came to collect stories and photographs will rise suspicion ultimately making it fruitless. People's trust on us is more important than anything else while going for the shoot.
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About the Author: Nivedan is an intern at National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune. With self-nurtured knowledge of photography, he experiments with photography and other forms like posters so as to use them as tools for sensitization, advocacy and social transformation.
Contact Nivedan at nivedanmangalesh@yahoo.com
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