In 2010-11, Rita Toto, a resident of Totopara in West Bengal, completed her graduation. However, what set her apart from a generation of newly minted graduates across the country was that she was the first woman from her indigenous community to do so. Why is it that a tribe got its first woman graduate only so recently? The question bothered Abhijit Alka Anil, a Mumbai-born documentary-humanitarian photographer, who chanced upon Rita’s story in 2013, while working in the social sector in Bengaluru. Further research revealed limited details about the Totos — then, a community of just 1,550 — prompting Abhijit, a former student of sociology, to wonder why so little was known about the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). “I wanted to find out more about them, and I set off for Totopara with my camera,” shares the Oslo- based photographer.

Members of the cultural collective Toto Young Group in a dance rehearsal