Deepa elaborated that she had no scope to intervene in the process and was therefore a mere documenter of the event. Her brief was specific: to document the 12-day meeting, and to edit the footage into a film.

I immediately wondered whether it would work, 52 minutes of watching a meeting! That too on working children. Added to Deepa’s confession was my own confusion about working children. While all around me I can see children working in atrocious conditions, I could not agree with the groups who called for a ban on child labour. To them the main enemy appeared to be the parents who, in their analysis, live off the earnings of their children by packing them off to work instead of school.

Moreover I had seen a highly objectionable film by a reputed documentary maker which paints the parents of working children as devils even as it glosses over the inequities of a system that forces children to work. But as I was always the minority voice and, more importantly, I couldn’t really articulate my sense of disquiet, I usually kept quiet and stayed from the lobbies wanting to ban child labour.

So it was with much skepticism that I stayed back to watch Time to Listen. But when the film began I listened and watched, spellbound. The tone was set right away when, one after another, the children articulated why they began to work. As they expressed themselves individually, a clear and collective picture of an unequal, exploitative and oppressive system emerged. However, the children did not dwell on their present circumstances for long. Their agenda was clear. They had come together in order to collectively change their destiny. And as a first step, they demanded the right to organise themselves.

The film followed the children over the next few days as they debated the issues surrounding child labour, shared their experiences and emerged with a strong sense of bonding. From expressing a desire to establish contact with each other, to discussions on the possibility of providing scholarships to working children, they revealed themselves to be fully capable of articulating their problems and mooting probable solutions.

While the subject, and for that matter even this review, suggests that the film is heavy and perhaps boring, it is no so. Actually, it belongs to the genre of those highly watchable films where the viewer is scared to blink for the fear of missing out on something. The children themselves, of course, are the main reason for this. One is amazed, time and again, at their ability to think, analyse and articulate.

Nevertheless, credit should also go to the director and her team. It is not easy to make interesting viewing material out of meetings. In addition, there was the question of language. Many different tongues were in simultaneous usage. While the organisers of the meeting, the Concerned for Working Children deserved kudos for arranging translation and ensuring the participation of all children, it must have been a nightmare for a director to put in all together.

Deepa Dhanraj, along with her cameraperson Navroze Contractor and her editor Sanjiv Shah, both near-legends in their chosen fields, have empathised with the spirit of the children. The film continually showed the youngster’ reactions, their games, their teasing one another, their attempts to cross the language barrier without translators and, well, just being children. Different facets of the children’s personalities come through in a touching manner. The filmmakers have made a serious effort to present the children in totality. The strong sense of identification that the film achieves is, perhaps, because of this precise completeness.

The fundamental issue that emerges from the film is that children are seeking dignity for their work, a quality that dehumanising systems attempt to destroy and deny. This quest underlies the struggle to secure their rights. The film details that the children think of their struggle to be organised and recognised as ultimately a fight to be treated as citizens, a fight for life.

This film is extremely valuable for all those who are working for change, for a more just and humane society with equal opportunities for all. The film is also a very important tool to control the hype (that can get quite hostile) around the issues related to working children. As of now the film has English subtitles. For its greater dissemination and use I hope, it will be translated into more Indian languages.