ekemp – International Bridges to Justice

Sundarban Sramajibi: The Agricultural Workers Hospital

ekemp — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:54:35 +0000

Though most of my internship revolved around the implementation of criminal justice in India, a recent trip to a West Bengali hospital reminded me of the other aspects of human rights enshrined in international legislation.

According to the Belur Sramajibi Hospital, “The right to health is a basic human right as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948. India is one of the signatories to the coveted international charter and has promised to protect the rights of its people by virtue of giving assent to this charter. The Indian Constitution also guarantees the right to life, but considering the high cost and lack of medical resources, health rights has become almost a forgotten, if not alien, term to the common people.”

Please turn captions on while view images.

Life on the West Bengal Border

ekemp — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:46:54 +0000

As a photographic intern for International Bridges to Justice, this is my first post on their blog. Last weekend I visited a small village near the Bangladesh border called Murshidibad. It is an isolated region of West Bengal along the banks of the Padwa River. It took us several hours on a train, followed by another two hours in a small cramped van just to reach the village. Upon our arrival we were greeted by kind people with open arms who wanted nothing more than to tell us their stories. We spent the next six hours of our day interviewing person after person. Listening to the never ending flow of human tragedy made it hard to put together even a simple presentation. I feel that the pictures speak more than words, however, each photo does have a small caption to help you understand what is happening.