My Work

Documenting conflict, resilience, and human stories through investigative journalism and visual storytelling.

‘I trusted him’: human trafficking surges in cyclone-hit east India

Role: Photo Journalist
Network: The Guardian

It began gently at first, as a romantic relationship with Rubik, an older man from out of town. He had travelled for work to the area where she lived, in India’s Sundarbans, a unique landscape of rivers, mud flats, islands and the world’s largest mangrove forest, located in West Bengal. He had flattered her, romanced her and then suggested marriage, even meeting her parents.

Anima was brought up in a poverty-stricken village where the homes are made from mud and straw, there is no running water and little education opportunity. The promises made to her by Rubik were intoxicating. “I trusted him, I didn’t know what bad things he would do,” she said. “This was my mistake.”