"Life On The Edge" Pt. 1 / Natisha Mallick
Panskura- West Bengal, India 2012
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Life on the Edge is a first-person investigation by Natisha Mallick into one of India’s most persistent and overlooked public health crises: the risks of childbirth in rural communities. Despite India’s rapid economic growth, it remains among the most dangerous places in the world to give birth—especially in villages, where trained medical professionals are scarce and infrastructure is limited.
Prompted by a relative’s unsupervised home birth, Mallick traveled to her ancestral village in West Bengal to better understand why so many women still give birth without clinical support. What she found was a shadow healthcare system comprised of untrained midwives and informal providers that fill the gap left by inadequate official policy and lack of access to professional care.
This story is about more than failed policy and the dangers it creates; it is about communal trust, resilience, and the role of unofficial caregivers in a deeply compromised system. Mallick’s work urges us to reconsider how rural healthcare is supported, managed and delivered in regions where it is often the only option.
About Natisha Mallick
Natisha Mallick is a documentary photographer and data visualization specialist based between India and Europe. With a background in computer engineering and a Master’s in Big Data Science from Queen Mary University of London, she focuses on underreported stories at the intersection of public health, inequality, and rural life. Her work has appeared in The Wire, Spiegel Online, The Irish Times, Fountain Ink, and L’Œil de la Photographie, among others. Natisha currently works as a data visualization and interaction consultant in London, UK.
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