In the heyday of the jute industry, millions of people in Bengal made their living doing this laborious work, which has hardly changed since the industrial revolution. The 100-year-old machinery has been endlessly repaired. State aid kept this sustainable alternative to plastic going, but its future looks bleak. In beautifully composed shots, Nishtha Jain (Gulabi Gang [2012], Lakshmi and Me [2007]) shows the last vestiges of the industry. She follows the entire production chain, from cutting and drying the reed along the river to weaving in two of the biggest mills in the area. Along endless rows of antique looms, the air thick with dusty fibers, workers carry out their routine work. Accidents and jammed machines are commonplace; workers’ faces reveal the exhaustion of a lifetime of labour. Meanwhile, the union is fighting for a minimum wage equivalent to 250 US dollars a month. During their break, the workers speak out. “Nowadays nobody cares about quality, just more production,” says one. Not long afterwards, one of the mills closes its doors after more than a hundred years.

Sampat Pal is from an area of northern India plagued by drought, poverty and corruption. Life there is tough for the people at the bottom of the traditional caste system, the Dalits (untouchables) and women. Violence and intimidation are business as usual. Sampat became aware of the unfairness of the system at an early age. In 2006, she founded Gulabi Gang, an organization run by and for women. It raises the issue of injustice against women and Dalits and teaches them how to defend themselves. The group goes from village to village dressed in pink saris and armed with sticks. The organization currently has several thousand members spread over a large area. Gulabi Gang documents their struggle, showing the women at recruitment meetings, investigating the death by burning of a young woman and attending to various domestic conflicts. They are fearless, and they won't rest until an official investigation is started and the perpetrators are punished. But will they be equally persistent when their own families are involved, or will traditions gain the upper hand after all?