Baranagar Jute Workers' Colony

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Published on: 11 September 2018

Avisek Dutta

Avisek Dutta, a Post Graduate in Management from IISWBM, ventured into documentary filmmaking in the year 2016. His first assignment was for the NGO Tagore Society of Rural Management for their Rangabelia Project. In 2018, he began working on a documentary for Nagorik Mancha, an NGO working in the field of labour rights for the last 30 years. His own production documentary AGAMANI, a film based on the lives of acid attack survivors, is due to be released at upcoming international film festivals.

During the colonial period, Baranagar became the centre for the extensive jute trade and manufacturing of gunny bags, due to its proximity to Calcutta (present day Kolkata), the then capital of British India and also to the jute producing regions of Bengal through road and river. Baranagar Jute Mill carries forward that tradition of jute manufacturing, with the workers’ colony nearby the factory. Since the decline of jute industry in India, this factory and their workers are now facing an uncertain future.