Summary

Pipe Village Trust is a UK film-making human rights charity. As a not-for-profit company, its purpose is to publicise the plight of those in modern day slavery and oppression around the world, through film and television. The trust acts in conjunction with other human rights charities by seeking to expose oppression and to bring all kinds of global slavery to an end. An international board of reference includes parliamentarians, senior academics, human rights advocates, lobbyists, and prominent figures in the film and television communities

History

To date, four major documentary films have been produced by Michael Lawson, the founder of Pipe Village Trust. They are India's Broken People, India's Hidden Slavery, India's New Beginnings, and new for 2010, India's Forgotten Women . Special audiences for these films have included key influencers in the United States Congress, the State Department, the United Kingdom Parliament and a variety of business and other global leaders. India's Hidden Slavery received a major film premiere in London's Leicester Square, and several of the films have been seen on British and American television networks. Pipe Village Trust often partners with the broader efforts of other human rights charities, including the Dalit Freedom Network. As a result of the production of these films, around the world many thousands of key influencers have been informed of caste-based slavery in India, resulting in several global consultations and conferences. The films also play a significant role in raising large sums for development work among the Dalits in India.