The US former first lady was visibly moved after a troupe of seven girls, who are survivors of sex trafficking, spoke at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) complex about the plight of women through a modern Bengali song written by Mousumi Bhowmik.
City-based NGO Kolkata Sanved uses dance movement as an alternative mode of healing for the psycho-social rehabilitation of victims of violence and trafficking.
One of the dancers, who is 20 years old, said she felt delighted to have performed there as she got a pat on the back from Hillary.
After a big round of applause for the youngsters, Hillary complimented them saying, "I loved your breathing techniques ...Wonderful."
Swarna Chitrakar, a traditional painter from Pingla village of West Midnapore district, showed how the message of anti-trafficking can be spread among the rural populace by means of traditional Kalighat paintings, known as 'pata chitra' in Bengali.
In her two-minute performance, she told the story embedded in the scroll paintings in the form of a song.
Now a dying art, the traditional form of storytelling was popular in the 19th century.
Inside the Bengal pavilion of the ICCR, Hillary went through a collection of various handicrafts, saris and other textiles from various parts of West Bengal.
She also saw a brief karate performance by a girl who lives in a red-light area of Bihar. MORE
