Moving Asia was a panel discussion between Shahidul Alam, Prasiit Sthapit, and Bhavna Adhikari which was moderated by Robert Godden. The discussion was about how migration affects the migrant workers and their families. The speakers Mr. Sthapit and Ms. Adhikari are working in Nepal and Mr. Alam is working in Bangladesh. Robert Godden had worked in Nepal for 3 years and now is stationed in Hong Kong. It can be said that the panel members work for the countries’ people who want to move up the social ladder through migration. They show the reality for the people whose story might often be filled with frauds, betrayal, bonded slavery, hardships beyond imagination, luxury, wealth, skill learning, exploitation, and a sentence for a lifetime of not seeing their loved ones or home. The discussion which encompassed the search of missing persons by Mr. Sthapit, the various perspectives in the migration world by Mr. Alam, the different information which is often overlooked by the migrating worker were informed by Ms. Adhikari. The moderator presented his involvement in the human rights field with his organization Right Exposure; they give solution on how to use a visual medium to bring about social change.
Present State
Migration in the South East Asian countries happen because the people want to move up the social ladder by moving to a country with better economy seem to be their only option to escape the vicious circle of poverty at home. This migration is helpful for the mother country’s economy also as the foreign cash inflow through these workers come into the country in form of spending for the family at home, acquiring new property, children’s education etc. The people from the subcontinent often move to Malaysia, Singapore, GCC as the rapid industrialization promises a job, a better life than the one they see at home for their family.
Information is wealth
The panel discussion on personal terms resonated with me as migration for work has happened within my own home. But the different ways in which the exploitation has happened and can happen shows that how class divide leads to the binding of common sense for the people and how lucky we the entitled class are. Hailing from a better-informed household and surrounding, the discussion showed how just creating awareness could reduce several of the hardships. Also, the discussion brought out how the facebook photo posts of the neighbors make the person want that in his life. This kind of vanity which is often discussed and experienced hit home. The realization that the other people often have the same experience and expectation as anyone else made the whole discussion interesting.
Activist with a camera
Photography for Mr. Alam was just a medium which worked for the activist and he is ready to stop using it when it does not and Mr. Sthapit explained himself as an investigator and researcher. These confessions show that the photograph is just a part of the bigger idea behind the project. When Mr. Alam was questioned about his method of accessing practically inaccessible people, in a sensitive matter which might show them in a bad light, he was happy to explain that the people believe what they want to believe. These words made sense in a lot of ways for the whole discussion and the presentation shown.
Gender Bias
Ms. Adhikari explained about the reluctance of the migrant workers to be photographed as often in the case of women. It is because the social circle of the migrated girl’s family is informed that she is working somewhere in the city of Kathmandu rather than the truth that she is working in a foreign country as a tailor in an industry and is earning handsomely. This type of gender bias does not help in the migration as often it is thought that the women who move out the country in search of better employment often end up being sex workers. This kind of myth has to be eliminated for which Ms. Adhikari is working tirelessly. At the end of Mr. Alam’s presentation a poem, by one of the immigrant worker Babu Biswas and translated by Mr. Alam to English, he laments his search for homeland brought tears to anyone living in a faraway land to feed his family at homeland.
Intent and Effect of Project
As a whole, the panel discussion was more of a showcase for the artists’ work where each artist discussed the problems they had and how they are overcoming them. Having an experienced photographer like Shahidul Alam in the panel all the other panel members, listeners were interested in knowing his method of working. The awareness on the level of hardship endured by the migrant workers can be understood only by seeing and touching their living conditions as any amount of words cannot do justice to their plight. We can understand that photography as a medium is close to trying to show that.
From the discussion, we can understand that the whole work of Mr.Alam was to present at the Global Forum on Migration and Development summit which is to be held in Bangladesh during the month of December. The summit is expected to be attended by the ministers and industrialists whom he shows in black light in his work, since he shows all the perspectives of migration from the labour recruiter, the contractor, the commissioner, the ministers, the industry owners who employ the immigrant workers and the immigrants themselves his work which seems wholesome is being planned by him to present to his own government showing its own shortfalls in migration. Here the presence of photography is felt, as no other medium can take the split second of the viewers’ time and make a lasting impact for their lifetime.
Conclusion
Thus the discussion which I felt covered almost all the aspects of migration in their countries. But in India migration across states is more pertinent and pressing need which needs to be addressed, researched more and brought to light. This I feel is the more relevant topic and how each state within a union fight against each other by the name of borders, human resource, water and much more.
Allied Event
There was a slide show Moving Asia which was curated by Mr. Godden and had photographers Emily Wabitsch (Germany), Ian McNaught Davis (South Africa), Kai Löffelbein (Germany), Kazuhiro Yokozeki (Japan), Kim Badawi (France/Male), Mahesh Shantaram (India), Marco Valle (Italy), Prasiit Sthapit (Nepal), Simt Chi Yin (Singapore), Siniša Vlajković (Serbia), Tom White (United Kingdom) and Vincete Jaime Villafranca (Philippines) also shows how much the migration affects the life of the people in their lifestyle, health, etc. So the multilayer of the migration was shown at the festival
