Almost every year, around the monsoon time, various parts of the country get affected by intense flood. States of Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh are among the worst affected. My series documents the flood affected areas of parts of Bengal – the Amta & Udaynarayanpur blocks of Howrah.

Through this documentation, I have tried to capture the life of people during the floods, their state of mind, their misery, their helplessness, and most importantly the hope that they have almost lost! While the State Government says that this is a manmade affair by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), every year, but the people affected fail to believe that the government cannot do anything about it. “Why should we get affected every year? Why can’t the Government take caution, knowing that this happens every year?”, says an old man while crossing the bridge. But that’s something to debate. In the midst of this pointing finger at each other, the common man suffers. Only a few families can be rehabilitated to nearby school buildings, to govt. officers, etc, but most of them are not. Lack of electricity, drinking water, food, hygiene are the common challenges.

One of my photograph captures the story of a family, where the husband has suffered a stroke few months back, and is paralysed. They live in this one small room where hardly any sunlight comes in. Till a couple of days back the room had six – seven inches water inside. The outside still is flooded with knee deep water all around. No electricity, no drinking water, limited food and the husband in bed, paralyzed! The lady of the house have to be extremely alert all the time with her torch, just to prevent snakes crawling inside…

This is not the end, such stories are common. People travel from far off interiors to the mainline town by boat to fetch drinking and cooking water, food and medicines. Their distress is seen in their eyes. As the sun sets every day, darkness engulf their lives. Fear and hopelessness is the only thing that they sleep with, looking for a better dawn!