Doc World

WHY SLAVERY? Selling Children

By Pankaj Johar. A production of THE WHY Foundation.

In India, the world’s largest democracy, millions of vulnerable children are bought and sold, given only what they need to survive one more day. This issue of child slavery was far removed from filmmaker Pankaj Johar's life despite seeing children in factories and on street corners. It all changed when a maid employed by his family suffered a devastating loss. To understand the ways in which poverty, illiteracy and corruption conspire to provide a breeding ground for child trafficking, Johar travels the country, meeting with the trafficked and the traffickers, police, legal experts, and activists like Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi.

SELLING CHILDREN follows the lives of children who have been denied a childhood - sold to work in mica mines, pick tea leaves at plantations, work as domestic helpers and sold as young brides. As Johar dives deeper, he discovers an India with values he can no longer identify with, exposing a nation in which abuse, exploitation and systematic injustice tear apart the lives of children and their parents. Unfurling the truth, Johar invites us to take responsibility to put an end to the selling of children in India and the world. Silver Winner, 2nd Annual Anthem Awards, Human & Civil Rights - Film, Video, Television or Show.