These women were doing back breaking labor on the train platform in Puri clearing dirt and concrete when we asked to take their photo. This was the first time they had seen a picture of themselves.

We spotted them as we rushed to catch our train back to Kolkata. The workers were almost all women wielding axes breaking concrete. Among them was a young girl who looked like a teenager. We were initially shooed off by the foreman standing with his arms crossed off to the side.