Migration due to water scarcity in Rajasthan

Rurban Kurjan: A Photo-exhibition

In this election season where political parties miss no chance to look for poll-related issues, the Jaipur based artist chose photography as a medium to highlight how water scarcity is responsible for migration of villagers in Rajasthan.

Like in most of the states, in Rajasthan also scarcity of water is the biggest issues. Thousands of women walk several kilometers everyday to fetch water for their household chores. Jaipur based independent filmmaker and photographer Abhishek Kumawat chose photography as a platform to show how the scarcity of water has eventually led to the migration of people from rural villages to urban land.

In the photo exhibition, Rurban Kurjan beginning from Sunday at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 28-year-old engineering graduate Kumawat has portrayed the life and spaces of people who migrated from villages to the city because of water scarcity, lack of jobs and identity crisis.

Photo by Jaipur based independent filmmaker and photographer Abhishek Kumawat.

Speaking about the significance of Rurban Kurjan, a young filmmaker Abhishek told DH, "Rurban is a word is a fusion of rural plus urban. It's important to explore the interactions and conflicts of this amalgamated space. The migratory bird “Demoiselle Crane” in winters, migrates from Central Asia and Siberia to Rajasthan and popularly known as Kurjan in local culture and folk songs – a symbol of migration". The photographs exhibited have been captured in various villages of Rajasthan.

"In this exhibition, I intend to understand the psychological and geographical aspects of this shift, especially shift in their consciousness when they migrate to city/cities for survival and not because of any aspirations", Kumawat added.

Photo by Jaipur based independent filmmaker and photographer Abhishek Kumawat.

Rajasthan based noted photojournalist and poet, Himanshu Vyas sees the photo exhibition 'Rurban Kurjan', as a form of communication, which explores a highly illusional aspect of a photograph to portray a migrant. involving the creative procedure. " Even today, women in parts of Rajasthan walk for hours to fetch drinking water. Isn't it a seed of migration! Someday water dries and their home forever migrates to some city but their languages, textiles and even gestures can't migrate. This is how cities chew living cultures", Himanshu Vyas told Deccan Herald.

The six-day exhibition will kick off at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi on April 28 (Sunday). The show will be opened by noted educationists Prof. (Dr) I.K Bhat, vice chancellor of Manav Rathna University, Prof H S Shivprakash, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University and eminent photographer Dinesh Khanna.

Photo by Jaipur based independent filmmaker and photographer Abhishek Kumawat.