Photojournalist Smita Sharma started investigating child trafficking in 2015, when she met Meena, a young schoolgirl from West Bengal, India, who was seduced by a man who approached her while walking to school. With gifts and a promise of marriage, he enticed her to run away with him in just a few days. A week later Meena found herself locked in a brothel 1,000 miles from her home.

WE CRY IN SILENCE is a result of a six year investigation by Sharma where she documented cross border trafficking of minor girls in India and Bangladesh for sex work and  a chapter on the under-reported issue of trafficking of indigenous girls for domestic servitude.
The book includes photographs from Sharma's investigation, testimonies from sex trafic survivors and a self- defence educational add in with illustrations and drawings. 
 
A part of this project was commissioned and published globally as Stolen Lives by National Geographic Magazine in October 2020.

Stolen Lives was awarded at the 2021 Amnesty International Media Award  in the photojournalism category.