Greeting everyone with a warm reception consisting of a cheery smile and folded hands, leena Kejriwal seemed quite the happy-go-lucky individual until she took her seat at the dais along with Shekhar Mehta, head of Rotary Teach under the Rotary India literacy Mission (RIlM). That is when this veteran photographer and installation artist seemed in her element, speaking about the condition of sex workers in India with a lump in her throat. She began with the words, “There are three million female prostitutes in India and among them 1.2 million are minors. The average age of recruitment of girls into this profession is between the tender age of nine and 12.”
Kejriwal sought to initiate a crowd funding campaign for her public art project, Missing, while officially launching it in the Capital. This project seeks to bring to light the issue of young girls who disappear without any questions asked. “There isn’t sufficient awareness among people regarding this social evil. I am just a voice and I know I cannot curb this issue with my project, but what I am trying to do is initiate a conversation with the public and thereby make them think about the vulnerability of little girls,” she stated during the launch at The Eros Hotel.
The idea is to create larger-than-life black silhouettes of young girls placed against the urban skyline. Constructed from iron sheets, forged and painted pitch black, they would look like sharp, black holes cut into the sky — to represent metaphorical holes into which numerous little girls vanish. The artwork is planned to be supported by an augmented reality mobile app, which would allow anyone with a smartphone to engage with the installations, uncover more details in the form of blogs and articles and also become part of the project. Her belief in the cause, combined with the immense curiosity and interest shown by the public, motivated Kejriwal to take Missing forward after being actively involved in the issue of sex-trafficking for the past 12 years, working with various prominent activists and NGO’s in Kolkata.
The idea of Missing was first seen at the India Art Fair last year with an outdoor installation by Kejriwal which comprised three sculptures. This project is already working on awareness drives and has initiated ground level, pan-India projects like a stencil project where students and artists are working with girls rescued from red light areas to stencil ‘Missing’ silhouettes on the city walls. This public domain project plans to erect at least one installation in each city tied up to Missing, with one installation comprising of three silhouettes. “The sky is my canvas and the silhouettes are my way of engaging with peoples’ thinking process. Though this is just an idea and we do not know how far this will go, even if a few people form a positive perception on the issue and do their own bit to tackle it after viewing Missing, I would be more than happy,” said Kejriwal, reflecting the uncertainty of the response of the masses towards this project.
She was also of the opinion that, Missing might lead to more instances of street photography and local art thereby offering fresh perspective to the common man.On a positive move, RIlM has promised assistance to the initiative by taking the project forward on a pan-India level. After New Delhi, Missing moves on to Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Dhanbad and Ahmedabad. Mehta was at hand to add, “We will be helping little girls to go back to school and I take immense pride in this fact. We at Rotary Teach are happy to be collaborating with this unique initiative.” Rotary Teach focusses on providing assistance in the form of smart-classes and a well trained teaching faculty for government aided schools in rural areas. “let them not go missing. let them go to school,” he quipped.
Though on the launch itself Kejriwal received donations amounting to Rs45,000, she aims at raising Rs16 lakh by the end of the month on her crowdfunding campaign on Wishberry to create the installations and develop the mobile application. Judging by the massive interest shown by the crowd at the launch, she might possibly exceed her expectations.
