Sayan Hazra

Visual Storyteller / Photojournalist

Truck Quarantine

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Sayan Hazra strove to produce this remote documentary directly responding to the various lockdown measures undertaken in India and elsewhere. This entire REMOTE COLLABORATION with truckers was orchestrated over CROSS-PLATFORM MESSAGING APPLICATIONS because Sayan could not travel 2000 km to stranded truckers amidst the nationwide stringent lockdown. Chandan Kumar Yadav was one of those truckers stranded for these 25 days at a 2.5 km distance from Truck Parking Zone, National Highway 6, Uluberia, West Bengal, India. He only narrated the entire story over a recorded voice call. Sayan remotely guided Chandan and his fellow truckers Monoj Kumar Gupta and Sukhbindar Singh to capture visual evidence of their plights. These truckers kindly provided all photographs after responding to Sayan's request. This is also an attempt to develop a personal and communal voice through the language of photography as part of a process of empowerment and social change.

The Cortona On The Move has collected the multimedia piece (Truck Quarantine) from this work as part of their permanent archive (The Covid-19 Visual Project, The Economic Effects, Chapter 4.09) on the Covid Pandemic.

Indian truckers suffered a lot due to the 21-day nationwide stringent lockdown that was imposed in India on March 25, 2020, to try to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. This also brought the transportation of goods in India to a near halt. Nearly 300,000 trucks with a payload worth USD 350 billion were stranded on highways across India. This caused the Trucking Industry in India, one of the critical sectors for the economy and operational 24×7 for 365 days of the year, a major choke point in the supply chains for everything from food to medical supplies. No work means no food for these truckers. Companies stopped responding to their calls and blocked their payments as they could not deliver goods. These truckers who already lost 2 trips due to this lockdown also ran out of cash currency in hand. They did not know when they would meet their families, who needed support during this pandemic. This constant stress of uncertainty impacted their mental health badly. Stranded on the road, truckers broke down emotionally and financially due to this unplanned, sudden lockdown.