It is estimated that a child goes missing in India every eight minutes. That’s one full classroom of students disappearing every few hours. Almost 40% of these children are never found. Families are torn apart.

In some cases, these children are taken from their homes to be bought and sold in the black market. In other cases, children are coaxed into traffickers’ hands by promises of jobs or a better future, when in reality, upon arrival they become enslaved. Slavery takes many forms: hard labour, organised begging, domestic servitude, or prostitution.

In this instalment of Let’s Talk About, Newslaundry’s Snigdha Sharma delves into the complexities of child trafficking in India: how and why is it so prevalent? What forms does it take? Who is most vulnerable? What is being done to prevent it? Through a series of sobering interviews, she speaks to victims, experts, and journalists on the frontlines to understand the many aspects of India’s child trafficking crisis.

Tune in to gain insight into child trafficking, an industry with a terrifyingly widespread presence in India, affecting millions of children from the schoolrooms of Arunachal Pradesh’s tiniest villages to Delhi’s GB Road.

Written and narrated by Snigdha Sharma, produced by Parikshit Sanyal, and edited by Harshula Sharma & Umrav Singh.

Acknowledgements: IMPULSE NGO Network and Save The Children

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