Thought for the Week: Slumdog Millionare

The movie, Slumdog Millionare, swings constantly between the unreal world of the quiz show and the real world of one boy’s childhood in the slums of Mumbai, including violence, poverty and corruption, which make it really hard to watch.
We find it hard to understand how people can be allowed to live in such conditions. Accusations of exploitation are being levelled against the film makers whilst the government exploits the situation for their own means.

It would be interesting to know what happened to the money from the film makers. Was it given away to a slum community? Did the families who received the money share it with their neighbours? It’s a sad fact, as we have seen with those two child actors from India (who until recently lived on the streets) who have been given their own flats in a very high profile and high publicised move by the Mumbai authorities.

But the question must be asked, what are they doing about the other million plus children living in squalor and poverty on those very streets that Hollywood has trodden?