For more than 2,000 years, women from the Baiga tribe in the highland district of Dindori, in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, have been tattooed. Sumintra, 25, from Bona village, has the markings across her forehead, legs and arms. The women who work as tattoo artists are knowledgable about the different types of designs and pigments preferred by various tribes, and their meanings are passed to them by their mothers. The tattooing ‘season’ begins with the approach of winter. (Photo by Ronny Sen/WaterAid/The Guardian)

A student from the union territory of Pondicherry prepares to take part in the inaugural session of the national Balrang Festival 2017 in Bhopal, India, 20 December 2017. More than 500 participants from 26 states across the country take part in the three-day long cultural event to showcase their performances. The festival organised by Madhya Pradesh School Education Department and Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangralaya. (Photo by Sanjeev Gupta/EPA/EFE)

Indian Air Force officers stretch before taking part in full dress rehearsal for India's Republic Day parade in Kolkata, January 23, 2018. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A man carries his daughter, dressed as Kumari, on a scooter, as they arrive to attend rituals to celebrate the Navratri Festival, on a road outside the Adyapeath Temple, on the outskirts of Kolkata, India on March 25, 2018. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A female body builder prepares backstage to participate in the first national Miss Saraighat Body Building Championship in Gauhati, northeastern Assam state, India, Saturday, April 2, 2022. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

In this picture taken on July 10, 2023, women belonging to the “Meira Paibis”, a group of women representing Meitei society, hold torches during a demonstation demanding for the restoration of peace in India's north-eastern Manipur state in Imphal, following ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

Indian folk artists perform during the “Unboxing Bengaluru Habba” or Bangalore festival, an annual citywide festival held in front of Vidhana Soudha, the State Legislature of Karnataka, in Bangalore, India on December 10, 2023. The Bengaluru festival showcases folk dance and cultural diversity that have shaped Bengaluru into a vibrant metropolis. (Photo by Jagadeesh N.V./EPA/EFE)

A man applies coats of glass powder to kite strings ahead of the Hindu festival “Uttarayan” in Ahmedabad on December 21, 2023. (Photo by Sam Panthaky/AFP Photo)