I spent my childhood in a refugee colony. There I witnessed the hardship faced by refugee women. I saw my childhood friends becoming prostitute for survival. I witnessed their vulnerabilities – spousal loss, physical violence, theft of the possession and familial separation. ‘Women in Assam’ is born out of that profound impact left in my heavy heart.
In his five years of documentary journey Partha focused on the stories of women from the refugee colonies of Assam. He visited these places several times and came to know from interviewing them that these women and their families are politically threatened. They were stripped off of their identity as Indians and unjustly held in detention centers. Many of these Bengali families are very poor and unable to afford the cost of their judicial processes. Presently, because of the chauvinistic policies prevailing in the state of Assam these Bengali speaking people are being labeled as Bangladeshis and forcibly being pushed back to Bangladesh Border.
‘Women in Assam’ is not just a documentary – it is an archive of human anguish and suffering. Through his lenses Partha tried to capture the compounded trauma of gendered violence, poverty and migration. The invisible became visible. In a time when citizenship is wielded as a weapon, his visual narrative holds up a mirror to a nation dwindling between the boundaries of citizenship and compassion.
