These images were taken for NOVO & IJM’s Virtual Reality film, which is one of fifteen films commissioned by Oculus and Facebook for the 2017 VR for Good Creators Lab. The film highlights bonded labor slavery in India, which occurs most often at rock quarries, brick kilns, and rice paddy fields. The workers highlighted here are illustrative of the type of ferocious, back-breaking work that the enslaved are forced to do without compensation - although the workers photographed also live in poverty earning less than one U.S. dollar a day. The film follows one family who IJM, with the support of Indian government officials, rescued from a brick kiln. The father, Vanu, nearly died because he was beaten repeatedly by his master and left to mend without access to a doctor. The film culminates at an event in which 500 former bonded laborers were brought together over the course of two days to celebrate the completion of a two-year recovery program - to celebrate their freedom.
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