Lost Kids

Directed by Nikita Sutyrin (2019)

Film Review

https://en.rtdoc.tv/films/560-lost-kids

This is a film about the nearly 100,000 Indian children lost to child trafficking every year. Because impoverished families are reluctant to seek police help, there are no official statistics. However observers estimate an Indian child goes missing every eight minutes. Police officials try to stem the problem by patrolling trains on the lookout for single men accompanied by children clearly not related to them. In some instances social workers accompany the police to assist children in reuniting with their families.

Traffickers specifically target local “tribal” (indigenous) girls, referred to as “black beauties.” Traffickers often lure them to the cities with promises of work. In some instances, families pressure them to go.

The filmmakers following several families as they put up lost child posters, request access to police surveillance videos and seek help through the help center operated by the Dehli Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

After months of putting up fliers, one of distressed fathers featured miraculous reunites with his son after a Mumbai stranger recognizes his son’s photo. The odds of locating a lost child in a city of 12.5 million people is infinitesimally small.

According to the UN, 40,000 Indian kids go missing every year. The Indian police put the number at 80,000. India has a total of 1.2 million children.