Siddharth

Synopsis

In New Delhi, 12-year-old Siddharth is sent by his father Mahendra to work in a factory in another province to help support their family. Siddharth is supposed to come home in one month for the Diwali festival. When he fails to return or call, his distraught father begins a desperate search to find his missing son. The authorities, who scold an already guilt-ridden man for allowing his son to become a child labourer, believe that Siddharth may have been abducted and trafficked. Filmmaker Richie Mehta deftly brings to life Mahendra's moving, tangled, and often futile-seeming journey with a touch that transforms it into both a commentary on modern India as well as a moving portrait of one family within that society.

According to statistics released by the International Labour Organization, the number of child labourers worldwide dropped from 248 million to 168 million between 2000 and 2013. While this progress is encouraging, the number of child labourers is still extraordinarily high, and 85 million children work in hazardous conditions that directly threaten their health and safety. Human Rights Watch has interviewed hundreds of children who put their education, their health, and often their lives at risk to help sustain themselves and their families. In India, Human Rights Watch found children as young as five making silk thread by dipping their hands into scalding water, leaving their skin raw and blistered.