Smita Sharma
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Smita Sharma is an Indian photojournalist based in Delhi whose work focuses on documenting human rights abuses and gender violence in the Global South, particularly human trafficking and sex trafficking.[1] Her work has been featured in Human Rights Watch, Time, National Geographic Magazine, WSJ, the New York Times, Die Zeit, and other publications[2] and she regularly speaks on gender crimes victim advocacy, social justice issues in South Asia, and ethical photojournalism.[3][2] Sharma is an International Women's Media Foundation reporting Fellow, a TED Fellow,[4] and has had her work exhibited in the UN Headquarters in New York.
Sharma's 2018 short video project Rebels With a Cause, documenting an all-female Jaipur Police squad that patrols the city on motorbikes to combat violence and harassment against women, was commissioned by Elle UK.[5] Sharma shared, with Louise Donovan, the One World Media Award in the popular features award category in 2019 for Rebels With a Cause.[6]
Together with Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, Sharma created Stolen Lives,[7] for which Sharma shared second prize in the outstanding investigative reporting category in the 2021 Fetisov Journalism Awards,[8] and won the 2021 Amnesty Media Award in the photojournalism category.[9]
In 2022, she published the photobook We Cry in Silence, which covers her investigative photojournalism on the cross-border sex trafficking of underage girls in India and Bangladesh, as well as a focus on trafficking for domestic servitude purposes.[10][11] The book received the 2023 Lucie Photo Book Prize in the Independent Category[12] and an Award of Excellence at Pictures of the Year (POY) International.[13]