|
British human rights
? freelance photographer Jason Taylor's exhibition on the
Indian truck drivers brought to focus the difficult life on
the road of a group of men who are known as? castigated as
couriers of the deadly delete HIV virus. Sujoy Dhar checks
out Jason's reel life tribute to these misunderstood men in
real DELETE who negotiates death and desperation every day
DELETE / live a life on the edge
It was Munna's first trip as a helper with his driver-chacha
(uncle). The young man and his fellow truckers were tired
of playing cards and watching movies in nearby theatres during
a strike. After sundown they all set out for a new dhaba for
dinner. A few kilometres away from Ichchapuram, a transshipment
point in Andhra Pradesh, where they were stranded, Munna had
no idea what the night was going to be.
Soon the group headed for the back/ towards the area behind
the dhaba. A few garishly decked up women were sitting on
a charpoy. After having sometime, Munna's seniors left each
with a girl in tow to the dark open space beyond. Hesitant
initially, Munna too picked up a dark thin woman older than
him. Shy and inexperienced, Munna was soon initiated into
adulthood by the woman who did not stop jeering at him for
his clumsiness. For Munna it was the first lesson in loveless
love making. It was also the first time he exposed him to
a deadly virus the world is grappling with.
Cut to an exhibition in Kolkata's British Council by human
rights photographer Jason Taylor. Titled "Driven"
it is a series on the hard life of the much maligned truck
drivers of the country who in the times of the AIDS scare
are known more for carrying the HIV virus than cargo in India.
In India, and perhaps whole of this subcontinent, truck drivers
and their helpers are often known as "couriers of HIV".
Taylor's exhibition was aimed at correcting this picture as
also a reality check on the life in India. He decided to pay
a still life tribute to the community by capturing their difficult
profession and lifestyle on camera, hoping to prompt the viewers
to question the public perception of truckers.
"For three months last year I travelled with them through
the length and breadth of the country, shared their lives
and took these photos. I tried to go into the environment
in which they live rather than concentrate only on the issue
of HIV/AIDS," he says.
"I never felt threatened by anyone. I was accepted and
cared for more than at any time while travelling in India,"
he says.
So the images that emerged were pieces of a trucker's candid
life- a man blowing up a condom like a balloon, one sharing
a calm moment with a sex worker in the backdrop of twilight
in the evening , or the hint of a same sex indulgence by a
senior man with his younger companion (helper).
Along with "discomforting" images of sex workers
showing their breasts to their clients on the move, there
are also quaint images of a trucker just sitting on the charpoy
and blissfully sipping his glass of tea.
Truckers are both victims and carriers of STD and HIV because
of the innumerable encounters they have with sex workers on
the highways. Reframe the sentence emphasizing ..because they
are lonely..they indulge in sex etc…This way they also
endanger their spouses back home. No data was available on
their sexual behaviour and the spread of the disease till
in 1993 In West Bengal/ India? check Bhoruka Public Welfare
Trust conducted the sexual behaviour and sero-prevalence study
at Uluberia in Howrah district of West Bengal. The study revealed
the extent of multi-partner sexual habits of the truck drivers
and their helpers and 94 percent of the truckers confirmed
the fact. OF?
The first intervention project among truckers started in Uluberia
of West Bengal and later it was shifted to a place near Kolkata
port. Afterwards Bhoruka started the projects at Raxaul along
Indo-Nepal border in Bihar, Ichchapuram in Andhra Pradesh-Orissa
border, Petrapole in south Bengal's border with Bangladesh
and Guwahati in Assam.
For activists working in this area, gaining the confidence
of the truckers is vital. According to Bhoruka outreach worker
Murad, he was branded AIDS-wala initially by the truckers
who used to shrink away at his sight till the situation changed
with the identification of a few STD patients whom he helped
them get treated in their clinic.
Cured of STD, several drivers and helpers came to thank him
and it was then he introduced them to condoms.
Interestingly one of the pictures of Taylor depicts a wooden
male organ capped by a condom, something AIDS awareness workers
have to demonstrate to the truckers quite often. "I show
them the wooden model of a penis and a condom and demonstrate
how to wear the cap. Few are outspoken and some are uneasy
but a few of them later approach me shyly to know about the
hazards of unprotected sex and I try to educate them,"
says Murad.
"There has been a great deal of behavioral change since
the awareness campaigns began in the 90s. They are much more
health conscious now," feels Bhoruka's executive director
Dr Rakesh Agarwal. But he is skeptical about the reach of
such exhibitions to the people at large.
"What Taylor has captured in camera is definitely an
honest and right representation of the truckers' life. But
since it is not for the masses and held for a selective audience
in places like British Council it cannot really reach the
people," observes Agarwal, emphasizing "Common people
should get to see it."
Taylor, however, feels his works would help people understand
the circumstances of a trucker on the highway. "Today
photographers are more what ? at presenting the issue than
the environment. By 'Driven' I wanted to show people who these
people are-normal men trying to make it through life and occasionally
getting wrong like most all of us," he says.
The exhibition, which was hosted in London recently, is being
presented in collaboration with Sexual Health Research Centre,
Delhi, and Naz Foundation International.
Taylor first became fascinated by the drivers' lives when
he was travelling around India.
"They are some of the hardest working, kind, generous
and misunderstood people I have ever met," he says. "They
drive on appalling roads and continuously for long hours.
In fact, the more important issues to look into are the appalling
conditions they have to function in. These need improvements
and not look at HIV/AIDS in isolation ," emphasises Taylor.
I've changed the quote
"They are men and so behave like men. DELETE. Do men
in any other job away from family and in such a masculine
environment act any differently?" asks Taylor. MOVE up
the quote to 'doing wrong etc…sentence
|
