The organisation MISSING was founded by Leena Kejriwal and started as a public art project after years of working with NGOs such as Apne Aap, Hamari Muskan and New Light. As an artist, Kejriwal fought against human trafficking by creating installations in galleries that brought up the realities of sex trafficking. She felt that the world needed a new approach to tackling human trafficking and introduced MISSING as a four-part Art As Activism movement, the first of which was the MISSING Stencil Campaign.
The Hunt for the Lost Durga is the first of a series of mural walks that MISSING is undertaking in its plan to engage the public with the issue of child trafficking. The murals were completed with the support of Shalimar Paints under their Colours for Change initiative. This mural walk is accompanied by an interactive Facebook messenger experience - the viewer can type 'Missing Mural Walk' into the search bar of the Facebook Messenger App then press 'Get Started' to be guided through the mural walk. The virtual guide asks the viewer which mural they can see and provides information about the mural and child trafficking, always ending with the question 'why wait for a girl to get trafficked to save her?' The virtual guide is still available and you can use it anywhere in the world.
This piece is the first in the mural walk and is titled 'Ma'er Chotu Durga'. The virtual guide describes how Durga is getting ready for school - she is doing her hair and putting a pink flower (far bottom right), pink ribbon and pink clip in her hair (left). The guide then explains that Durga can be trafficked today and states that every 26 seconds a child disappears into the world of trafficking.
