Meet the Bangladeshi women who fled violence, were trafficked, and are now trapped in India

Their realities often intersect — they come from extremely impoverished backgrounds; they fled exploitative situations hoping for a bright future; and are now incarcerated as illegal migrants Before I came here I didn’t know some place called Indiya existed,” said Salma*, 18, her face contorting as she tried to pronounce the word correctly. “I had heard of Bharat, Kolkata and Hindustan. I knew that only Hindus stayed in Bharat and there were no Muslims. That is all I knew.” When Salma left her husband and his abusive family in Bangladesh and crossed the border to India, she was not quite clear about the concept of this desh called Indiya, or of the boundaries between the nation-states. India, to her, was a geographical space. And now, India is the place she is imprisoned in for being a foreigner without valid documents