BBC 3 Controller, Danny Cohen, has taken the controversial decision to use Lindsay Lohan, a “former child star, drink and drugs rehab queen and paparazzi favourite[1]” to front a documentary on child trafficking in India.

‘Lindsay Lohan’s Indian Journey’, which airs on Thursday, will see Lohan meet young boys, sold over to traffickers by their parents and girls who have been trafficked into prostitution after following the promise of jobs in domestic service. The Hollywood star meets victims, their parents, and those involved in trafficking to find answers.

The choice to use Lindsay Lohan,  the ‘troubled movie starlet’  to front a programme which raises awareness of child trafficking in India, was controversial.

Does the documentary use “brutalised children […] as an accessory in her re-branding?[2]” or, as the director Sohata suggests, has Lohan’s own troubled childhood provided the perfect platform for her to show how precious childhood is?

Regardless of the controversy, Dalit Freedom Network UK welcomes this opportunity to highlight the very real problem of child trafficking in India. Of the children trafficked in India, as many as 90% are Dalits.

DFN UK’s partners, OMIF, are working to prevent child trafficking. They have set up Dalit Education Centres (DECs) which provide quality education, reinforcing values of human worth, dignity and freedom. Education not only provides better employment prospects which will break the cycle of poverty but provides hope that the discrimination which has enslaved families can finally be broken.

To date 100 DECs have been set up. It is estimated that without these schools, 30-40%[3] of the pupils would have been trafficked. DECs is just one of the anti-trafficking projects that DFN UK enables people in the UK to support, including the sponsorship of pupils through school. Find out more here, or sign up here.

So was the choice to use Lindsay Lohan to front a documentary highlighting the issue of child trafficking in India, a mistake or a stroke of genius? Why don’t you watch it and decide for yourself.

[1] Radio Times (27 March – 2 April 2010)

[2] Radio Times (27 March – 2 April 2010)

[3] 16 November 2009 from a personal interview with Dr Joseph D’souza, President of Operation Mercy India Foundation