About

We are a group of students and teachers from various departments of Jadavpur University, Calcutta. Part of a project called ‘New Media for change: Multimedia stories on under-reported issues’, the Daftaripara initiative tries to document the binding industry of Calcutta, located primarily in ward no.37 of the city. The project is funded by the ‘University with Potential for Excellence’ Scheme of the University Grants Commission, India, and is housed at the School of Media, Communication and Culture, Jadavpur University. The project creates an opportunity for the students to explore city spaces for intense fieldwork and research, and combine that experience with skills of digital documentation and web-based communication.

Since August, 2012, we have been interviewing people connected with the binding industry in Calcutta, from workers, suppliers and owners to publishers, union leaders and experts in the field, and trying to capture the many nuances of life, labour and human stories in Daftaripara. This website contains text, data, sound, images, artwork and videos that we have created so far. Do let us know if you wish to share with us anything (text, pics, sound, videos, data, information) that can help this repository of resources grow. Some of the keywords that explain our areas of interest are creativity, commons, free and open-source, crowdsourcing, multimedia, media ethics, alternative media, city and labour. Click ‘links’ to have a look at our earlier projects.  

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