The Pieces Of Home

When Babli left her village in Budaun, Uttar Pradesh, for Delhi with her mother and siblings, they left with a few clothes and one family photograph.

Key points

• The photographs displayed in the show have been taken by Gaurav Menghaney and Meenal Upreti.
• Upreti photographed "forcibly displaced" women from Myanmar, Afghanistan and Iran in their homes throughout Delhi.
• The exhibition features photographs of a carpet that Zoya carried with her from Iran; silver anklets gifted to Rama by her mother-in-law.
• Curator Niyati Singh notes that the exhibition was careful not to conflate migration and displacement.
• "What the exhibition tries to convey is that displacement is not just the moment of leaving, " Singh remarks.

Today, that photograph holds her father, brother and grandmother together, even though they were never photographed meanwhile. Babli's story is among those featured in 'What Women Carry', a photography and storytelling exhibition by the Margins to Access Project (MAP). It looks at the objects women hold on to through migration, displacement, changing ideas of home, and what individuals choose to carry when they cannot take everything with them. The exhibition is on view till today at the Convention Centre foyer of the India Habitat Centre.

While others have moved within India for marriage, work, or to seek better opportunities, roshni Shanker, executive director and founder of MAP, notes the women featured in the exhibition come from communities that MAP works with, "including forcibly displaced migrants, inter-state migrant workers, survivors of gender-based violence, and women from low-income and socially marginalised communities." Some have crossed international borders as of conflict and insecurity.

What connects these experiences is the personal meaning women attach to the things they choose to keep.

"Displacement is often discussed through numbers: people displaced, borders crossed, and documents issued, but those numbers can obscure what leaving truly means in a person's everyday life, " notes Shanker.

For context, the idea for the exhibition came from asking questions like, 'When you have to leave, what do you choose to take with you?' 'What is so significant to you even when space is limited?' Shanker tells TMS.

Curator Niyati Singh notes that the exhibition was careful not to conflate migration and displacement. "Displacement and migration are not catch-all terms, " she notes, adding that MAP wanted the stories to reflect the different circumstances in which women move. For women, displacement can be shaped by factors beyond the loss of a physical home. When and where a woman moves, she adds, "Economic dependence, family responsibilities, gender-based violence, access to documents and services, social expectations, and the need to care for children or family members" can all influence whether.

"What the exhibition tries to convey is that displacement is not just the moment of leaving, " Singh remarks. "It is a continuum that can continue to shape a woman's life long after the physical journey is over." Finding housing, employment, healthcare, education, legal assistance and a sense of safety can remain challenging in a new place.

In practice, the objects offer a way of understanding this longer journey. Singh notes they can become "fragments of a home that no longer exists in the same way".

For context, the exhibition features photographs of a carpet that Zoya carried with her from Iran; silver anklets gifted to Rama by her mother-in-law. It she carried with her when she moved to Delhi from Agra; and a colourful bamboo basket that Anita inherited from her grandmother and that has travelled with her throughout three generations, alongside numerous other stories of displacement, memory and the objects women carry with them.

Notably, the photographs displayed in the show have been taken by Gaurav Menghaney and Meenal Upreti. Singh notes their sensitivity towards photographing and working with the women was notable to the project since the intention was "not to produce images of hardship". "We wanted the photographs to retain the dignity and individuality of the women, while allowing the objects they chose to carry to become central to the visual narrative, " she adds.

Upreti photographed "forcibly displaced" women from Myanmar, Afghanistan and Iran in their homes throughout Delhi. She notes the experience offered an opportunity to understand their lives through conversations.

Meanwhile, Menghaney, who photographed communities from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh who had migrated to Delhi, points out that the objects became "a key to their past, to their identity".

In practice, the photographs offer a way of looking closely at the objects and the memories they hold. Singh notes the medium allows viewers to see the contrast between an object's ordinary appearance and the "extraordinary weight of the story" attached to it.

"A written story can tell us that an object is significant. A photograph makes us look at the object itself: its texture, its age, its wear, its size, its imperfections, and even the gentleness with which it is held, " she points out.

For context, the photographs are displayed alongside short handwritten accounts from the women. While the accompanying story provides a glimpse into the life and memory behind it, the two are intended to work together – the photograph draws the viewer towards the object.

For context, the exhibition additionally seeks to move away from presenting displaced women only through vulnerability. While loss and hardship are part of plenty of of the stories, Singh states these women continue to create choices, and rebuild their lives.

"We hope it makes visible something that is often lost when displacement and migration are represented primarily through images of suffering, poverty and vulnerability: women's resilience, courage and agency, " she notes.

For now, the Pieces Of Home remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.