Humans of Bombay

Humans of Bombay (HoB) is an Indian photoblog about people in Mumbai (previously known as Bombay). It was started in 2014 by Karishma Mehta. It is inspired by Humans of New York (HoNY). With her team, Mehta documents the stories of individuals and showcases it to the world through social media posts and a website.

Humans of Bombay
Type of site
Photoblog
Available inEnglish
OwnerKarishma Mehta
Employees5
CommercialNo
Current statusOnline

Development

Inspired by the Humans of New York (HoNY) website, Karishma Mehta started Humans of Bombay in January 2014, by traveling around Mumbai and asking people questions about their lives and for permission to take and upload their photographs and their answers to her website.[1][2] By April 2014, the Facebook page had more than 135 posts and almost 40,000 followers.[1] By November 2015, the page had reached 4 lakh followers.[3]

By 2015, Mehta began using the page to conduct fundraising campaigns, including for Kranti, an organization that supports the daughters of sex workers, and collected Rs. 6.5 lakhs for Kranti in one day.[3] In 2015, Humans of Bombay featured the story and picture of a girl speaking out against child marriage, that within two days gained over 60,000 likes on Facebook, and created an opportunity for Humans of Bombay to promote Aangan, the child protection organization supporting the girl.[4] A crowdfunding campaign for a child with blood cancer raised Rs 10.31 lakh within days.[5]

By 2016, Mehta moved the blog to humansofbombay.in, and self-published the book Humans of Bombay.[5] By then, the blog had covered a wide range of subjects, from everyday interactions to topics such as depression, alcoholism, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, Sapna Bhavnani discussing her gang-rape, and people sharing their own stories and support for others.[5] Fundraising campaigns continued on the website, including in 2017, raising Rs 11 lakh within four days on behalf of the daughter of a sex worker to support her education at New York University.[6]

By 2018, Humans of Bombay had grown to six permanent employees, expanded beyond Mumbai, and established an Instagram page with what Aishwarya Upadhye of The Hindu described as "Stories that make you grin from ear to ear, stories that would give you pangs of guilt, the ones that would make you well up, those that cement your belief in hope and survival,"[7] and Sadaf Shaikh of Verve described as "all kinds of stories – some that plaster a big grin on your face, others that elicit a quick prayer for having a privileged life."[8]

Details

Marine Drive was the first location chosen in 2014 and from there now they have covered thousands of people in Mumbai including Ratan Tata,[9] Narendra Modi,[10] Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkummar Rao, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Boman Irani, Anupam Kher, Kartik Aaryan,[11] Sunil Chhetri,[12] Milind Soman, Sapna Bhavnani,[13] Kajol and Ajay Devgan,[14] and Devika Rotawan.[15] Topics include acid attacks, sex workers, domestic violence and inter-caste love stories. Humans of Bombay published a first-hand account of a Jamia student talking about the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA) and the Jamia attack.[16] In 2021, a post by actress Sanjana Sanghi was removed after protests on social media over the content of her post featuring domestic workers.[17]

Publications
  • Mehta, Karishma (2017). Humans of Bombay. ISBN 9788179918951.

See also

References
  1. Lakhe, Amruta (22 April 2014). "Being the humans of Bombay". The Indian Express. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  2. Jain, Sanya (25 November 2021). "She Was Just 21 When She Started 'Humans Of Bombay'. Here's Her Story". NDTV. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  3. Singh, Tanaya (26 November 2015). "Meet the Human Behind the Popular 'Humans of Bombay' Page". The Better India. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  4. Lakshmin, Deepa (14 August 2015). "Her Parents Tried To Marry Her Off At 15, And She Said No. This Is Her Story". MTV. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  5. Lakhe, Amruta (14 April 2016). "From the heart, through a lens". The Hindu. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  6. FP Staff (9 June 2017). "How Humans of Bombay is helping a sex worker's daughter study at New York University". FirstPost. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  7. Upadhye, Aishwarya (19 April 2018). "When the Humans of Bombay came to Chennai". The Hindu. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  8. Shaikh, Sadaf (11 January 2018). "Karishma Mehta On How Humans Of Bombay Captures The Invincible Spirit Of The City". Verve. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  9. Kumar, Ravi Prakash (13 February 2020). "Ratan Tata at his candid best: Talks about his break-up, childhood, parents". Livemint. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  10. Scroll Staff. "I spent five days in a jungle during Diwali every year to reflect on life, says Narendra Modi". Scroll.in. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
  11. Datta, Devlina (24 December 2019). "10 Best Tell-All Tales Ft. B-Town Celebs On 'Humans Of Bombay' In 2019 That Are Worth Re-Reading". MensXP.com. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  12. "Sunil Chhetri gets candid about his love affair with his coach's daughter". The Week. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  13. Joshi, Poorva (5 May 2016). "Meet Karishma Mehta, the woman behind Humans of Bombay". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  14. "On Ajay Devgn and Kajol's 21st anniversary, check out their 10 best, most romantic pics". Hindustan Times. 23 February 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  15. "'Devika Rotawan was 9–year-old when she identified Kasab' - Uddhav Thackeray urged to allot a house to girl". TimesNowNews. 14 September 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  16. Magan, Srishti (17 December 2019). "Didn't Have Any Shred Of Humanity Left: Jamia Student Opens Up About Violence After CAA Protest". www.scoopwhoop.com. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  17. "Sanjana Sanghi's Humans of Bombay post deleted after backlash". The Indian Express. 16 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
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