Young Woman + Kanjar Community, Rajasthan, India

Let’s imagine for one minute sitting on a bench on the side of the road, looking into a mirror making sure the presentation is just right. Then imagine one of the countless truck drivers passing by notices and stops. The man then walks over to inquire about certain services. Then let’s imagine that our uncle comes over to agree on the price before we are expected to perform those services in our own home.

This is the reality for this young women, her aunts, her nieces and neighbors. Her community trades in sex, and the women are the products which the men of the community trade. 

Our minute of our imagination is her reality for 1,440 minutes each day.

Etsy 

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Best of Friends, Kanjar Community, Nirvanavan Foundation, Alwar, Rajasthan, India, 2016

All it took was one suggestion and the girls took to it instantly. We thought it a good idea to ask the girls to do something different for their portraits, to show their love for each other during the photography. Two girls did so immediately and the rest was as they say history.

Two girls after two girls displayed sisterly love in their own way, from the palm of the hands against the cheeks to elbows on shoulders. It was wonderful to see such abandon, to see the young women in my India work act with such freedom. All approaches are appreciated of course, but something about this afternoon touched me deeply.

Here were girls living in a community rooted deep in the sex trade, attending classes in the school offered courageously by the team at Nirvanavan Foundation, showing the world that hope does exist, that another future will be theirs from this point forward. The girls fully understand the reality around them, yet displayed an unrivaled joy this afternoon proving to me that change is around the corner.

Nirvana and his team are doing incredible work in these villages, as they have been given unprecedented access to the children. The teachers come from nearby villages, and do so at the risk of alienating themselves from their own families.

The courage cannot be overstated, and is on all sides of this social equation. Such expressions as the ones displayed here cannot be denied, and cannot be suppressed. They are the future of these communities, and hopefully the beginning of the demise regarding the type of work demanded of the young women.

My hope is that the young boys also in class will see their sisters in a different way, and lead the revolution. This is a lesson I learned a long time ago from Nirvana, that the boys are as important and even more so should change be the desire.

So on this day we also photographed the boys in the same way, and asked them to also show their own styles. They also jumped at the chance and the mood was palpable. Let's hope that these two young women walk a different path, and that in ten years their children are being photographed in the same way, yet in a different environment... free and full of potential.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3 with natural light only.

Young Boy + Kanjar Community, Nirvanavan Foundation, India, 2016

I present this portrait as a follow-up to the previous post, as he is a young boy from the same community as the two young woman. He will one day decide the fate of his sister, and perhaps his community.

Here he stands in front of a home locked for the season, with the family on a surreal vacation. They have gone to the big cities to present their daughters to the sex trade. They have left behind the younger children under the care of Nirvanavan Foundation, as Nirvana and his team have arranged a hostel to take care of the children daily. They provide classes as well as two meals a day for the time being.

Nirvana and his team are seeking to build a permanent structure for these children and it is my aim to help on my end to make this happen. Anyone affected by this post, and the earlier one, may also help make this happen through this collaboration... just send me a note and we'll brainstorm.

What will this boy and his brothers decide? Will they continue to place their sisters into the sex trade? Will they continue to earn their living from the services their sisters provide? Will they perhaps go another way? Will the classes held by Nirvana and his foundation have their intended effect?

My hope is that he and his brothers see another way. The obstacles are great, as seen by their lavish homes in the midst of rural India. Their earthly profits are substantial, without the men working a single day in the fields as their neighbors do on a daily basis. The temptations are almost insurmountable... yet I believe that this boy has the potential to overcome.

This is my hope, and what keeps me coming to Nirvanavan Foundation over and over again.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3 with the courageous help of Mukesh Poswal.

Hawa + Girls, Kanjar Community, Sex Trade, Nirvanavan Foundation, Alwar, Rajasthan, India, November, 2013

I returned to Alwar last November and worked with the wonderful Nirvanavan Foundation, under the leadership of my friend Nirvana. We visited four schools in total and talked about the existing hostel and the possibility of two more for the Kanjar Villages. Here my dear friend Hawa sits with the girls of one of these villages, and does what few in my experiences here have done… truly give himself to the photography… proud to have spent this time with all of these girls and the foundation.

Nirvanavan Foundation works in 12 Kanjar and Nat Villages, communities engaged in traditional prostitution. The girls are either sent off to the bigger cities or work with the outlying villages, providing their services as managed by the men in their communities. It is a hard reality to witness and an infinitely more cruel reality for them.

The young girls in this image face such a world on a daily basis, yet the foundation works with the premise that providing an education will someday soon produce the changes necessary to end such a practice for these girls. Perhaps that change will come for them, perhaps for their girls. Only time will tell.

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www.nirvanavan.org.uk

Note: This image was made with a hand-held Sony RX100M2, edited for size only.

Girl + Student, Nirvanavan Foundation, Slum, Alwar, Rajasthan, November, 2013

While in Rajasthan I was fortunate enough to once again visit the good works of Nirvanavan Foundation through my dear friend, Nirvana Bodhisattva. We began with a school located in one of the many slums of Alwar, a school visited four years ago as well.

The classroom has since been moved to a beautifully decorated building, and now classes are being held indoor as well as outside next to the small temple. Two teachers are responsible for this small school, and their enthusiasm is consistent with the team on a whole, a testament to the leadership as well as to the volunteers working daily to improve the lives of their comrades.

I remember this little girl from many years ago, as she sat for her portrait on the ledge of that first school. She was so tiny then, but her eyes have always had this incredible presence in front of the lens. This morning we sat down for some informal portraits in the classroom, with light coming into the room from a window to her left. She was barely able to hide her excitement, her happiness. This is what drives the work, this is the purpose behind the images.

www.halimina.org
www.nirvanavan.org.uk

Daughter of Kanjar Community, Nirvanavan Foundation, Rajasthan, India, November 19, 2008

The third exposure of the twelfth roll on this day produced the portrait above. She stood above me with the sky as her background. Turning slightly away from me and the sunlight allowed her eyes to stay open, and her head up.

Looking closely at the picture, I wonder how she received the scars on her neck, the cuts on her arms. Living a life without education is one thing, having to deal with the sex trade on a daily basis is yet another disturbing reality. Her community produces one crop, girls destined for the big cities to work in brothels and, when home, to do the same for the surrounding villages. Nirvana Bodhisattva and his team at Nirvanavan Foundation are doing their best to change this reality, and to perhaps bring this young girl the remnants of childhood that have passed her by thus far.

Years ago the foundation approached ten of these villages and asked permission to bring education to their children. Since these children are seen as outcasts within the society, attending school is quite difficult, even impossible at times. Many of the girls are of course groomed for the sex trade and must at some point end their education regardless. The foundation, rather than concentrating only on the girls, included the boys as well. The solution must involve both genders, and perhaps beginning with the boys will instill in them the ideas necessary to bring change in the hopeful future.

My work in the villages was surprisingly accepted, a sign of the respect Nirvana and his team have earned from the communities. In our second and third years many of the older women allowed us to make their portraits, an opportunity seldom offered to outsiders. The men also opened up to us a bit, and one specific man really warmed up to the work, coming with us to other villages to help us with the photography.

The stark reality is that these are villages drenched in the sex trade. Walking around the village one has to step aside often when the artifacts of sex are found on the ground. The young girls sit alongside the road under grass roofs with a mirror to help them look their best for passing customers. Many of the villages are located on truck routes so as to maximize their visibility. One glimmer of hope while we were present was that none of the customers would visit during our time, perhaps a bit camera shy I suppose.

I hope that Nirvanavan Foundation continues their good works in these villages. Their tenacity is remarkable, and admired deeply. Perhaps later this year I will visit the foundation and see once again these beautiful children, hopefully still playing children's games rather than those of the adults.

halim.ina@gmail.com
Halim Ina Photography

The World of Prostitution, Nat Community, Nirvanavan Foundation, November 15, 2009

According to R.C. Swarankar in 'Traditional Female Sex Workers of Rajasthan, India: An Ethnographic Study of Nat Community.'

'A girl in a Nat family is distinguished from an early age. Initially during socialization, a girl who is to lead a married life is prepared for domestic chores. She is made to observe social restrictions like high Hindu castes, while a girl who is to be inducted into prostitution is trained by a retired FSW (patelan) about the dhandha and its secrets. Such a girl comes in closer contact with retired FSWs and eventually with the clients and their activities. The environment and `demonstration effect' mentally prepare these immature girls. These girls either willingly accept dhandha or are brainwashed by retired FSWs to accept the same for the economic and perceived traditional reasons.'

'Nath Utrai has been a prominent ritual in the Nat community and is celebrated as a custom. Nath is the nose ring, a Nat girl wears, which is removed symbolically by her first client. Amongst the clients, one who pays the highest amount performs the custom of Nath Utrai. The needy parents' or guardians' first priority is to procure the maximum possible amount for Nath Utrai. This amount usually ranges from Rs10,000 to Rs25,000 or even more depending upon the age and beauty of the girl. The client gets the right to initiate sex with the virgin girl, who is dressed up like a Hindu high-caste bride. He is considered her husband and is given priority over other clients on future visits. Once the deal has been struck, offerings are made to a deity, followed by a feast for kith, kin and the community. After such a ritual, a girl is inducted and the community socially permits her to pursue dhandha. Dhandha, therefore, has a community sanction, and the control of Nat caste Panchayat. The norms of dhandha, amongst others, include sex as an occupation, in which a minimum time essential for intercourse should be spent with clients, sentimental attachment with clients is forbidden and no Nat male can be the client of a Nat FSW. These are part of the induction process.'

'The Nat perceive a girl to be sexually mature soon after the onset of menstruation. Tradition, economic, and family structure are the factors responsible for induction of a girl child into prostitution. Clients' preference for sex with a girl child for sexual pleasure, and curing an STD via sex with a virgin are the other reasons child prostitution is practiced in the villages in this study.'

In my limited time with the foundation and in these villages, I have seen young girls sit alongside the highway with a male family member next to them for the sake of negotiation. Usually a mirror hangs in order to help maintain appearances. In the meantime the children are running around like children everywhere do, playing games and doing what children do universally.

While the foundation did its best to shield me from the horrors associated with even one moment of this life, the signs were all around me. As I walked around to find the best spots for photography I would almost always step on a remnant of a transaction... all the while the girls would laugh at my reaction, displaying their hardened lives.

One time we asked a young girl, what do you think of your future? Without blinking nor pausing, she went on to tell us that this has been chosen for her and she is to follow in her aunt's footsteps. Her voice was without color nor emotion, understandably so in such a cruel world.

The good people of Nirvanavan Foundation are doing their best to help expand the choices available. They have initiated schools in ten of these villages, and have helped make the transition from a lack of schooling to enrollment in government schools. In spite of incredible hardships they push forward and have my sincere admiration.

halim.ina@gmail.com
Halim Ina Photography
Nirvanavan Foundation