Girls carry earthen utensils in a village. A Telegraph picture

Canvases of different shapes and hues lined the lush green lawns of the Calcutta Rowing Club on November 15 and painters rubbed shoulders with policemen. Along with established artists like Dhiraj Chowdhury and Tarak Garai were amateurs like former police commissioner Partha Bhattacharjee and filmmaker Gautam Ghose, who too wield the brush and are not afraid to exhibit the results.

All this for the sake of the club and its 150th year celebrations. Sales proceeds from the two-day workshop held on November 13 and 14 on the club premises and a sculpture workshop at Sonarpur will be donated to the club to build a swimming pool.

The previous year, the same artists had joined hands, rather, taken up the brush, to help build a toilet at the Academy of Fine Arts. Art always comes to the aid of a cause.

Saving childhood

Sujata Bhuniya and Sita Pramanik, both aged eight, narrated their ordeal at the day-long convention of the West Bengal Women’s Commission held at the Academy of Fine Arts on November 25.

Had it not been for the timely intervention of the Faridabad police, the National Women’s Commission and NGO Jabala Research Organisation, the two girls would have spent the rest of their lives as bonded labour in Faridabad.

Trafficked out of West Bengal, Sujata and Sita were sold to Faridabad homes as servants. Being tortured and exploited was part of their duty, for two years, till they were rescued by the police and put in a home in Sonepat, Haryana.

Their parents were traced by the commission and the NGO and later this year, the children were returned to their parental home with the help of the West Bengal CID, special cell.

But what next? Sujata is still traumatised. “Ma, badi cholo na (Ma, lets go home),” she cried as she was coaxed to speak to the media.

Crime against women is rising and there are no signs of its abatement, admits Malini Bhattacharya, a member of the women’s commission. Ten such cases were cited where the commission has intervened successfully. Many more remain.

Anasuya Basu