NEW DELHI: Indian journalist and documentary filmmaker Rohit Gandhi has been nominated for an Emmy award in the ‘Outstanding Investigative Journalism-Long form‘ category.
The nomination is for a film called Who cares about girls shot in different parts of India. It concentrates on the evil of child slavery. The story of the documentary revolves around not merely girls stuck in slavery but also those who have been able to break free and are fighting for others.
The Emmy’s award nominees were announced in New York late last week. Gandhi co-produced the film in collaboration with the National Geographic Film and Television, New York.
The film starts with a young girl selling spices in a street in front of Jama Masjid. It then takes us into the lives of two sisters that have been rescued from middle class homes where they were working as maids. The crew follows these girls as they get rehabilitated in a village.
One of the main characters of the film is a Nepalese girl who was a sex worker at the age of nine and now has become an activist, helping other girls get out of the flesh trade.
The journey takes the crew to a brothel in New Delhi where a 14-year-old is serving many customers. She is finally rescued from the brothel but she is able to get out of custody only after the police fails to file a detailed report about how the girl had been rescued.
Gandhi told indiantelevision.com that around the globe, over 200 million children are engaged in child labour, often doing the most brutal or degrading of jobs. Even in countries as wealthy as the United States, girls face harsh lives as victims of sex trafficking or as migrant workers.
This film is part of the on-going efforts of Gandhi to work in the area of child abuse. He had also produced a film on Child Brides this year that won the prestigious Edward Murrow award.
Gandhi also works as an international correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting. He does a daily report out of India on a channel called Dex TV. He spent six years of his career at CNN and has covered news, conflicts and disasters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Kuwait, Burma, China and Sri Lanka.
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