While walking on the streets of south Kolkata near the southern avenue a mural caught my eye. The mural was of a girl running... drawn in a way as if we are looking at her from the top angle. I became curious and went near it and came to know about an initiative to engage the public on the issue of child trafficking using art and technology by a Kolkata based NGO called "Missing Link Trust".
This mural was part of a campaign during Durga puja called "The Hunt for the Lost Durga" (Started on 25th September 2017) wherein a series of 8 murals were done on a particular route for making the people aware of the grave issue. The one I saw was the 5th mural in the list of 8.
There was also a small poster attached on the wall with the route, that they call Missing Mural Walk, and their website and the Facebook page link.
Other than these murals some silhouettes of girls with the total number of girls missing were also painted using stencils on walls in various places in Kolkata.
When I researched more I was really happy to see the person behind the noble cause Ms. Leena Kejriwal. I first saw her name in a coffee table book in the year 2009 in New delhi named "Calcutta: Repossessing the City" as the author and photographer. This is the book that inspired me to explore the city... from this book only I came to know about the Marble Palace.
Leena Kejriwal is a photographer and an installation artist. She has been an artist in residence in France under the Indo French cultural exchange program. Her installations are centered on the socio-political and economic structure of cities. Leena started the MISSING Campaign in 2014. MISSING is a public art and awareness campaign that aims to sensitize the populace to the desperate plight of millions of little girls who are trafficked for sexual exploitation. MISSING, a public art and awareness project that aims to create awareness about sex trafficking worldwide, and especially India.
This NGO uses various mediums and ways for the public awareness. Some of them are Big Installations, Paintings using Stencils, an engaging game(here's more information on the game https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missing/missing-the-complete-saga) and collective measures by engaging people to spread the awareness using Murals and other such ways.
Companies like Shalimar paints have come forward in sponsoring the paints used for the murals.
Here are the eight murals on the "Missing Mural Walk":
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| Mural no.1: Maa'er Chotu Durga; Source: Amogh Lux |
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| Mural no.3: Ten Faces of Patriarchy; Source: Amogh Lux |
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| Mural no.4: You can't hear me; Source: Amogh Lux |
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| Mural no.5: Durga on the run; Source: Amogh Lux |
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| Mural no.7: Hidden in plain sight; Source: Amogh Lux |
Here's the Google route map for the "Missing Mural Walk":
To know more about this campaign, you can follow them on Face book @MissingMuralWalk and Instagram @missingirls The link to their website is http://www.savemissinggirls.com/
Other than these murals some silhouettes of girls with the total number of girls missing were also painted using stencils on walls in various places in Kolkata.
When I researched more I was really happy to see the person behind the noble cause Ms. Leena Kejriwal. I first saw her name in a coffee table book in the year 2009 in New delhi named "Calcutta: Repossessing the City" as the author and photographer. This is the book that inspired me to explore the city... from this book only I came to know about the Marble Palace.
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