Phurailatpam Banti's artwork featured at 'Trafficking of children for sexual exploitation'

Laimayum Jaydeva Sharma *

Phurailatpam Banti Sharma was born on June 26th 1981 at Khoyathong Polem Leikai in the Imphal West district of Manipur to a Meitei-Hindu Brahmin family. He completed the Diploma in Multimedia and Web designing from Vivekanda Institute of Computer education Delhi. He also holds various Diplomas in photography, videography as well as the DFA Diploma in fine art and participated in various photography competitions at the national level. (national youth festival 2012 in Mangalore under the ministry of youth affairs an sports, govt of India).

Phurailatpam Banti has worked in digital painting, illustrating folktale stories of Manipur , he is experienced in visual arts and experimented with various mediums & forms of painting over the years. As he struggled to sale his art works, he took up a temporary job as a photo journalist for various media houses like Image TV Kakching, e-pao.net (social media & publication web site) and as a freelance photo journalist thanks to his photography skills.

But his artistic talent of being a natural born painter was never far from him showing promises and experiences in the field of visual arts. His painting were first selected and displayed at the “Chitra Santhe” organized by Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath on 31st Jan 2010.

His paintings were also exhibited at the 33rd Annual State Art Exhibition organized by Manipur State Kala Akademi, Imphal, 7th Manipur State Art Exposition 2009 held at the Manipur State Art Gallery organized by Manipur state Kala Akademi, 10th Manipur State Art Exposition 2013 organized by Manipur State Kala Akademi under the aegis of Lalit Lala Akademi, New Delhi.

After all his struggles and passion in this artform, one of Phurailatpam Banti Sharma's best painting is now being printed as a jacket cover of the book titled is "Trafficking of children for sexual exploitation " (Public International law 1864-1950) & by Sunil Salankey Rao, published by OXFORD University Press. This book is avilable in Oxford scholarship online (Oxford university press is a department of the unerversity of oxford).

The book discusses the development of public international law (1864-1950) relating to the trafficking of children and subsequent exploitation through prostitution. The author Sunil Salankey Rao is a lawyer of Public International law and an associate lecturer at the Monash University, Australia.

Phurailatpam Banti Sharma

Banti Sharma did related with social issue of his art . The featuring of Sharma's artwork in an international publication is a certainly great achievement not only for himself but also for the artistes in the state. So we need to appreciate for him and our Manipur govt also need to appreciate our International artist to Mr Purailatpam Banti Sharma, son of Phurailatpam Damudor Sharma. When I read this book in that time I saw Banti's illustration and I know that he is also a photo journalist of e-pao.net Manipur. I visit to his home and interacted with Mr Phurailatpam Banti Sharma.