50 Million Missing is an online campaign started by Rita Banerji to highlight the plight of Indian women. According to United Nations figures, there is a total of 50 million missing women in India. They have been purged deliberately, solely because of their gender, through abortion of female foetuses, female infanticide, and dowry murders.

 

Read more about them here.

 

The campaign has attracted the participation of both Indian and international photographers who have submitted their pictures, giving Indian women a face that society has denied their sisters.

 

Two of them share their photos with theasiamag.com here, and in their own words, tell the stories behind each and every shot.

 

Note from the editor: Our special thanks to our photographers for sharing their works with theasiamag.com.

 

View more photos by Chendur at www.flickr.com/photos/chendur

 

The works of our other contributing photographer Lars-Gunnar Svärd are at available at www.flickr.com/photos/imagesoftheworld/

 

Find out more about the 50 Million Missing project at www.flickr.com/groups/50_million_missing/

 

Lars-Gunnar Svärd: In 2006, I went as a volunteer to India. I did work in a girls' school in Sheo, a little village in Rajasthan on the road between Jaisalmer and Barmer. During that time, I met a girl that has survived a dowry murder attempt. It changed my view of India, a country I loved and still love. There was a new side that makes me sad.

 

Pinku was a girl in a class I taught in the first grade. I met her during a village holiday where she was eating an ice cream. I remember her as a child who could not go to school every day because she had other things she had to do. She was a bright girl but I don't think she will get a chance to be educated properly.

 

Lars-Gunnar Svärd: This is Asha. I met her in the capital New Delhi early last year. She and some other girls and boys perform acrobatics and beg from people in the cars in Connaught Place in central New Delhi. When the traffic lights turned red, work started. I spent three days with them. They were nice kids.

 

Chendur: Tears were rolling down my eyes, as I spent time with the children. There was innocence, cuteness, laughter - yet the unfortunate condition. Yamini School for Mentally Challenged Children is a day care center, with 52 children and 15 member staff.

 

The students are between four to 43 years of age,most have a mind of a two-year-old. They come from the nearby poor localities of Kukatpally, and Yamini provides them with free transport and also meals to the children.

 

The school was started by a vegetable vendor whose daughter Yamini got affected after she suffered from brain fever as a child. She is the inspiration for him to provide care to challenged children. She is also one among the 52 children there.

 

The staff take care of these children. Most of them have varied mental capacities - some can do basic stuff on their own while others need care even for very basic things like eating food or toilet skills.

 

Chendur: Picasso said, every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.

 

This was during a pottery workshop conducted by a non-profit organisation called Vidyaniketan, which means the place that provides education.

 

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Chendur:Life is pretty tough for the children in these shelters. Hundreds of shelters constructed on just bare ground and asbestos sheet top adorn the far off areas around Bangalore, India's IT hub with bare minimum basic necessities.

 

The girl carrying the child must be around 12-14 years old. They may have been sisters but I am not sure as I didn't know the local language.

 

The child was crying louder during the medical camp they conducted frequently there. The cries grew louder on seeing the camera. The older girl started consoling the child who would later...

 

Chendur: ... start smiling.

 

At this shelter, they help out children of construction worker on very outskirts of Bangalore. They organise informal schools, day care centres for the children who cannot go to school. They require more funds to expand their activities for those children. They also teach people about sanitation and help them with basic medical help.

 

The construction workers are the invisible force behind the break-neck expansion of Bangalore, while they live in wretched conditions. If you would like to help them, please contact Outreach Onsite at https://www.onsiteindia.org

 

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Chendur: The day this photo was taken was depressing. It was at a non-profit organisation called Humanitarian Hands near Bangalore. They provide care for mentally challenged elder women, men and children.

 

There were few children smiling and holding my hand yet they couldn't comprehend anything happening around them. Some elder people were in their own world talking on their own, crying and just moving around speaking to themselves. Some were in pretty bad shape as they were abused on the streets. As I came across them and was trying to digest their stories, I ran into this granny who gave a very beautiful smile that made my day.

 

Chendur: This was another lady at Humanitarian Hands, which provides shelter for men, women and children rescued from the streets of Bangalore, India's IT hub.

 

Related Stories:

India's silent gender cleansing

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Chendur: This was another lady at Humanitarian Hands, which provides shelter for men, women and children rescued from the streets of Bangalore, India's IT hub.

 

Related Stories:

India's silent gender cleansing

Modern-day Sitas burn to death