Leena Kejriwal

Background

About Leena Kejriwal

Leena is a photographer and installation artist. She draws inspiration from real life, people and their spaces. She has been a brand ambassador for Fuji India and an artist in residence in France in 2006-07. Her seminal work 'Calcutta: Repossessing the City', launched as a book in 2007, has been a bestseller. Her works have been a part of Sotheby’s Spring Asian Art auction. Since 2014 her work has reflected her preoccupation with human trafficking and has found a new language in her public artwork MISSING. MISSING was launched at the India Art Fair to great national and international reviews and since then she has run successful national and international crowdfunding campaign to gather support and spread awareness on the plight of young girls lost into the dark holes of sex trafficking. The campaign uses art and technology to create social change which makes it a game changer in this issue. It is traversing between the tangible and the intangible public spaces and connecting them through the underlying single purpose to create generate curiosity, recognition and finally a sense of deep loss for the girls last in the dark holes of sex trafficking. The MISSING Public art project has evolved since its conception with public engagement being the key purpose of the project. The street stencil art project has gone viral since 2015. The stencils can be seen across the country in metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and in the thick of the trafficking belt in Kishanganj, Bihar and Kokrajhar, Assam, Kultali in West Bengal to name a few. The MISSING Game for the Cause was launched in October 2016 and was the NASSCOM Indie Game of the year. The Bengali version of the game hand great traction in Bangladesh, leading it to be featured on the Google Play Store and striking the #1 position within a week! The Women and Child Development and Welfare ministry have joined hands the MISSING public campaign to spread awareness on the issue through anti-trafficking awareness drives in 3 districts of West Bengal. The project has a more concentrated work in Sunderbans, West Bengal, which accounts for 44% of India’s trafficking victims. Here the Missing projects skill training and digital literacy centres are moving to shake this status quo through empowerment and sustainable livelihood. The project known for its impact and innovation is now run under the aegis of the Missing Link Trust with government and corporate collaborations to stop the rising demand and make the world a safer place for the girl child.