The Slumdogs Blog

Homeless and parentless children often have few opportunities in adult life. A lack of education and community support predisposes them to society's least appealing jobs. Combine that with deliberate exploitation and they can be drawn into criminality and antisocial networks.

For young women, the sex trade can be a typical destination that is difficult to escape.  Enabling and supporting young women is a crucial goal for NGOs and governmental organisations. Slumdogs and Myriad Dreams is attempting to fund that crucial final stage of education that provides young women with skills and trades to enable them to provide for themselves. 

The Times of London has an interesting and moving portrait of the daily life of a prostitute, Laskar, in Calcutta . Link Here

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Slumdog Millionaire trust 'Jai Ho' has come out to the rescue of the film's child stars Rubina Ali and others by hiring a social worker to look after her.

The Jai Ho Trust was established with financial support from the filmmakers to ensure the welfare of the movie's child stars, including Rubina and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail. The trust has offered to help by hiring a trained social worker to look after the welfare of Rubina - amid allegations that the nine-year-old girl's father Rafiq tried to sell her for 2,00,000 pounds. However, Rafiq has denied the claims.

The Usnagazine have quoted saying the Director Danny Boyle and Producer, Christain Colson that they will remain commited to working the trust and the family to secure Rubina's long-term best interests. The trust will support Rubina, her parents and responsible authorities to ensure, the rights and interests of Rubina are protected. The trust is keeping regular contacts with Rubina and family and has now hired an experienced social worker to assist in her and Azharuddin's welfare activities. 

The independent trust was set up to ensure that the family of the child stars receive suitable accommodations and a fixed sum of money each month for living expenses. It also covers the education costs for Rubina and her siblings and provides her with a lump sum of money after she turns 18 years old.

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Economic and educational reforms in India have not dented the prevalence of child marriages, fuelling risks of multiple unwanted pregnancies, their termination and sterilisations, according to a new study led by an Indian- American. Anita Raj, associate professor of social and Behavioral sciences at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and her colleagues found that nearly half of adult Indian women aged 20 to 24 married before the legal age of 18.

These child marriages were significantly associated with poor fertility outcomes, such as unwanted and terminated pregnancies, repeat childbirths in less than 24 months, and increased sterilisation rates. "These results suggest that neither recent progress in economic and women's development, nor existing policy or programmatic efforts to prevent child marriage and promote maternal and child health, have been sufficient to reduce the prevalence of child marriage in India to that of most other developing nations," wrote Raj and colleagues. The study found that 44.5 percent of women aged 22 to 24 were married before age 18.  More than one in five - 22.6 percent - were married before age 16, while 2.6 percent were married before age 13.

India raised the legal age for marriage to 18 in 1978. In the past 15 years, national policy efforts have been developed to increase educational and economic opportunities for girls and women, reduce child marriage and expand family-planning support.

The authors said that while there had been a slight reduction - five percent - in the rate of child marriage compared with national data from 1998-99, the continued prevalence of the practice and its association with poor fertility outcomes highlights "the crucial need for increased family-planning interventions tailored to married adolescents".  The study found that women who married younger than 18 were significantly more likely to report no contraceptive use before their first childbirth than were those who married as adults. Nearly half - 48.4 percent - of women who were married as children reported giving birth before they turned 18. Women married as children also were more likely to have had repeat childbirths in less than 24 months and to have had three or more childbirths, than those married as adults.

Child marriage also was associated with an increased prevalence of unwanted pregnancies and an increased prevalence of pregnancy termination, defined as miscarriage, abortion or stillbirth, said a Boston University release. The study found sterilisation rates were higher for women married as children than for those married as adults - 19.5 percent, compared to 4.6 percent. Overall, more than one in eight women, or 13.4 percent, had been sterilised. Of those not sterilised, more than three-quarters reported no present contraception use, the research found.

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In Mumbai, a brothel agent, labor recruiter, or other predator usually approaches children within 15 minutes of their arrival, according to Saathi- An NGO organization. To maintain a 24-hour watchout, NGOs enlist the help of vendors, bathroom cleaners, ticket checkers, and others who work in the station. A community that is in the railway station can understand who are the new faces. Once new children are identified, reuniting them with families can be difficult. Many come from close-knit rural villages, where there is a strong stigma associated with runaways. Often a reluctance is shown by other families to accept the returning children.

Despite the perils of station life, the children who have found a precarious home in Mumbai Central may be the fortunate ones. Those who end up in one of Bombay's thousands of "pavement communities" (living on sidewalks, in parks, or in empty lots) are at higher risk for disease, starvation, and sexual abuse.

In the stations, the boys are under the domain of the railway police. In the past, the Railway Protection Forcehad a mandate to clear stations of unaccompanied children. The result was all of them were perceived as criminals. That attitude began to change in the late 1990s. A national 24-hour hot line for runaway children opened in 1996 and receives 1,000 calls a day in Bombay alone from people who find runaways and lost children and call to have them picked up and taken care of.

In 2000, the government passed the Juvenile Justice Act, which outlines the rights of children and mandates the government to work with NGOs to address the problems of homeless children. Incidents of violence against the kids are now rare, and commuters who see a child being beaten are more willing to interfere than before. Despite the changes, serious threats to children remain, such as police taking bribes from brothel agents.

The presence of NGOs does more than help the children. Although adolescent boys, some of whom work the trains in groups as pickpockets and necklace-snatchers, are still a major problem, railway police say petty theft by younger children has declined in recent years. The feeling among observers is that children who are looked after by someone are less desperate and more law-abiding.

The police often deny the existence of juveniles making their permanent homes in railway stations. But railway police routinely use station children to fetch tea, clean stations, and do less pleasant tasks (Eg: On a recent afternoon at Bombay's Thane railway station, two officers ordered a group of station kids to remove from the tracks the body of a woman struck by a train a few minutes earlier).

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

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At Mumbai Central station in Bombay, a thousand tired passengers disembark from an overnight train. Businessmen with briefcases, barefoot laborers, and wealthy families followed by luggage- toting servants make their way through crowds of waiting passengers seated on the station's marble floor, toward a swarm of taxis outside.

As they disperse, a group of about 25 young people remains behind. Ranging in age from 10 to 20, they are among the permanent residents of Mumbai Central. For them - and countless other children across India who have no other place to live - the station is much more than a transit point; it is an escape from a troubled home, a meager livelihood, and a veil of protection from the chaotic streets of overcrowded Bombay (Mumbai).

On a sweltering May afternoon, Siraj, who has wavy black hair and the taut muscles of a luggage porter, tells his story as he waits to unload a train that is already six hours late. Nearly a year ago, he hopped a train 1,100 miles away in Calcutta after his mother, overwhelmed by his father's illness, kicked him out. "I just got on the train and thought I would find work," he says. Siraj came to Bombay because that was where the train was headed. He stayed because he had nowhere else to go.

 It is difficult to estimate the number of children like Siraj who live in Bombay's stations; their mobility and the overwhelming number of homeless defy surveys. UNICEF estimated in 1994 - the latest year for which figures are available - that India has 11 million homeless children, with a significant percentage living in urban areas.

An estimated 30 unaccompanied children arrive at the city's 125 train stations every day, according to Aasara, a nonprofit organization that supports Bombay's homeless children. They're attracted by the perception that there must be jobs available in the country's most prosperous city, and also by the image of glamour that gives Bombay the reputation of being the Los Angeles of India.

At many of the stations a revolving community of kids come and go. Many of these new arrivals leave the station to live on the streets, end up in red-light districts, or are found and helped by a nongovernmental aid organization (NGO). Some are arrested and end up in juvenile detention. In Mumbai Central and Thane railway stations, the communities of children are more stable, mostly because of the greater presence of NGO representatives, who do what they can to provide food, classes, and clothing. Also, because Mumbai is the terminus for long-distance trains, there is steady work.

Barefoot and dressed in shorts and ragged T-shirts, the boys have become a necessary, though not always welcome, part of stationlife. Most, like Siraj, work as porters, loading and unloading burlap- covered bales of linens from the trains and carrying luggage for passengers. Those too small for such jobs clean trains, sell refilled water bottles, and beg. During slow times, they hang out in video parlors to escape into a Bollywood movie. Many also inhale ink thinner from rags, the cheapest "high" available. At night, they sleep in small groups on sheets of cardboard laid out on the platforms.

Life in the station, Siraj says, is unpredictable. On his best days, he makes 200 rupees, a little more than $4. Other days he earns nothing. Occasionally, vacationing families will hire him as a temporary servant; sometimes he is paid, sometimes not. Siraj says he misses home, where he was at least allowed to rest. "Here the police are always kicking me awake," he says.

Like runaways worldwide, some of these children have fled abusive parents, starvation, or worse. Others leave home for seemingly minor reasons. Bishu, who's 18, recounts jumping a train near his home in the northeastern city of Tripura after being shamed by a public scolding from his parents, who were angry about his relationship with a girl. Some runaways are drawn to Bombay's glitz, land of Bollywood and shining shopping malls. Still others become separated from their families on a train and simply ride until the last stop.

At Mumbai Central, representatives from Saathi, another nonprofit organization supporting homeless children, provide the young residents with a benevolent adult presence. Although there are group homes available, station kids fear institutional life, says Washington Gupta, a Saathi outreach worker. "In an organization, they have to follow some rules," Mr. Gupta says. "These guys want to go to the films, see adult movies. They want to be free."But being free has a high price for these children.

Santosh and Ketn, two of the station's youngest inhabitants, wander the platforms together. Both 10 years old, the pair look impossibly small in the immensity of the station. Santosh arrived in mid-May. Wearing a tiny military uniform and a serious expression, he is vague about his origins, saying only that he came to Bombay to work. During the day, he sweeps trains with a bundle of hay and asks for handouts. Ketn carries a shoeshine brush and a tin of black polish. He says he moves freely among the city's rail stations, avoiding the first-class coaches, where passengers are intolerant of beggars. Do they ever play, have fun? The boys look at each other and shake their heads." No".

The crowds at the stations provide the children with anonymity and a chance to make a living through handouts and odd jobs, but they are also filled with dangers.

By Andrew Strickler 

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The latest on latest that goes air on the Oscar Winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire" is the news report brought out by the 'News of the World' a British newspaper, about the child actor of the movie Rubina Ali. The news report says that the father of Rubina tried to sell his nine-year-old daughter for adoption in a bid to escape the Mumbai slums.

News of the World alleged that Rafiq Qureshi wanted 20 million rupees (400,000 dollars, 310,000 euros) for the girl, who played the young Latika in the British hit film set in India. "Slumdog Millionaire", a rags-to-riches tale of children from the slums of Mumbai, won eight Oscars in February, including the best picture Academy Award.

News of the World said its reporters posed as a wealthy family from Dubai, employing its regular "fake sheikh" sting tactic.

The weekly tabloid said a Mumbai informant told them that Qureshi was touting for the highest offer, having already been approached by a Middle Eastern family.

Rubina's father have told the media that he is much more concerned about the child's future since she has brought fortune to the family. It is reported that Rubina's father is ready to discuss about the adoption but would expect some proper compensation in return.

While the producers of Slumdog Millionaire have donated 500,000 pounds to a child development organization that works in the slums of Mumbai to support education and healthcare programs. It is after slamming them last month for not providing for the child actors in the movie.

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Alone and afraid, Aamir was initially grateful when a ‘kind’ older couple befriended him on his arrival in Mumbai. This chaotic urban sprawl is now India’s largest city and home to more than 20 million people.

More than nine million of them live in slums, raising families in shacks built from rubbish on top of open sewers. For a homeless 12-year-old child freshly arrived from the countryside, it is a terrifying place to be.

Overcrowding is now so bad in this huge metropolis that shanty towns have even sprung up in the international airport. People in rags scavenge as giant jets thunder past just feet away. But for many on the Indian sub-continent, Mumbai will always bethe city of dreams — a place of Bollywood film stars and gold-paved streets. It was certainly the image that brought Aamir here.

 

Beggars belief: Children at a Mumbai drop-in centre

Fleeing a violent, drunken father in rural India — his motherhad died years before — the12-year-old had sneaked on to a train bound for the city. And when he got there, he hoped to make his fortune. It was not to be. Alighting at Victoria Station, the city’s main  terminal and an architectural monument to the days of the British Raj, Aamir was penniless and bewildered. He started begging for food. Within minutes, a couple emerged from the crowd and approached him.

They gave him cakes and said they’d take him away to start a better life. ‘I thought they were may be social workers or religious people,’ he told me. But Aamir’s food was drugged and when he became drowsy, the couple put him in a rickshaw and took him to the city’s municipal hospital, which is where the real nightmare began.

 

Crippled: A child begging on Marine Drive in south Mumbai

For at the hospital, a doctor was paid to amputate one of his healthy legs. Now speaking in the third person, as if to pretend it didn’t happen to him, Aamir tells me ‘the child’ was in ‘great pain’ after the operation. ‘The leg is removed here,’ he says, pointing to his own stump and grimacing. His limb had been severed mid-calf, leaving him without a foot.

Now in hiding after being rescued from the hospital by a charity, Aamir is one of hundreds of Indian children deliberately crippled by gangs so they can earn extra money begging. He still struggles to talk about his experience. Asked to describe what he thinks about those who ruined his life,he just stares at the ground in silence. Crippled for life, he is now the lowest of the low.

Dalbeer, 15, is another victim of this shocking industry. Reduced to begging at the railway station after his parents died, Dalbeer was approached by two friendly older strangers one day. ‘I thought they were may be social workers,’ he told me. ‘I thought they could help me.’ But he was taken from everything he knew to Nagpur, a city athousand miles from Mumbai, after the woman told him it would ‘be better there’. And there, along with several others, he was deliberately crippled before being brought back to Mumbai and put to work begging. His leg had been severed in the same place as Aamir’s.

 

Indian film star Amitabh Bachchan said the film unfairly portrayed a 'dirty underbelly' of India

So just who would chop off the leg of a healthy child? The boys are victims of India’s so-called ‘beggar mafia’ — criminals so violent and a moral that they are prepared to hack the limbs off children, as well as steal new-born babies from hospitals. They use the children as begging ‘props’ to maximise their earnings from sympathetic passers-by.

The plight of India’s child beggars has been thrust into the international spotlight by Slumdog Millionaire, the British-made film that won 8 Oscar Awards. Branded ‘poverty porn’ by some Indian critics, the film has caused controversy in a country that wants to promote itself as amodern economic super-power. Due to open in India this week with the Hindi title Slumdog Crorepati, the film-makers have been criticised by police and politicians for painting an ‘outdated’ portrait of a corrupt,violent country. Their anger centres on a scene in which an Indian boy is intentionally blinded by gangsters so that he can earn more as a beggar.

‘They are making out that India is a Third World, dirty underbelly, developing nation,’ snorts Amitabh Bachchan, one of the country’s leading film stars and a powerful, patriotic voice.

 

Slum children as portrayed in the Danny Boyle film

Now home to thousands of ‘outsourced’ British jobs, such ascall centres, many insist that such brutality has been banished from the ‘new’ India. Yet the truth, as I discovered during a chilling week-long investigation, is more disturbing than anything dreamt up by the creators of Slumdog Millionaire. For in Mumbai, as well as in other major Indian cities, hundreds of young children have had their arms and legs chopped off; scores ofothers have been blinded. The gangs also pour acid on to the children’s bodies, leaving them with suppurating wounds.

 

A happy ending for the stars of the film Slumdog Millionaire - but for real slum dwellers the future is bleak

Their suffering comes down to one thing: money. In a country of 1.2 billion people, where the gulf between rich and poor is vast,there are an estimated 300,000 child beggars. By no means all are mutilated by the beggar mafia, but those with the worst injuries do make the most money — up to £10 a day for deformed children, a fortune in a country where millions survive onjust a tenth of that.

Not that Aamir and Dalbeer saw any of their earnings. After being crippled and put to work on the streets, the children are forced to hand over the cash to gang masters each evening. And if they don’thit their ‘targets’, they are beaten and tortured. Perhaps unsurprisingly, almost all of these child beggars, whether mutilated or not, are addicted to solvents, alcohol and charras (powerful Afghan hashish, often laced with opium), which are suppliedby the gang masters to keep the children under control.

‘It helps us forget where we are,’ says Tufhaar, nine, a child beggar who had his left arm removed and constantly sucks on a bag filled with glue. Right across this chaotic city, amputees line the streets, operating in aggressive gangs at every intersection and tourist attraction. Many maimed children are terrified of speaking out, saying their limbs ‘just disappeared’ or blaming unspecified‘accidents’. This code of silence is understandable. ‘The gang masters hold you down and cut out your tongue if they think you have informed,’says Flintoff, 18, a ‘reformed’ local Indian gangster and former child beggar who wears a T-shirt with a picture of the rapper Eminem. ‘I still steal now and again, and sell drugs — but I keep away from the beggar mafia.

These men are not human.’ Mohini Nerurkar, 33, agrees with Flintoff’s assessment. After giving birth to a boy last week, she was recovering at the city’s Sion municipal hospital when a woman posing as a social worker in aneat yellow sari asked if she could examine the baby. Glad of a break, Mohini went to wash her four-day-old son’snappy. But when she returned, her baby had been taken. The ‘socialworker’ is believed to have been part of a gang which steals babies for the beggar mafia.

 

A child stands in the doorway of her home in Nehru Nagar, a shantytown where a part of Slumdog Millionaire was shot

With at least one child being taken every week in Mumbai, not to mention dozens more in India’s other overcrowded cities, Mohini received no sympathy from the authorities. ‘The mother shouldn’thave spoken to a stranger,’ says hospital physician Dr Sandhya Kamat, ruling out any hope of the baby being recovered.

Inspector Sanjit Kavdakar, the detective in charge of Mohini’scase, says begging has become big business for the crime syndicates.‘There is a lot of money involved in it and it is highly organised. Mafia people are stealing these children simply to use in begging.’ Two other children were abducted by the mafia in a single day lastweek: Asiya, aged three, disappeared from outside her home in a slumto the east of the city, while Faiz Sheikh, 13, was taken from another slum to the west. Both girls’ parents blamed ‘beggar mafia goons’ for stealing their children.

Complaints to the police are pointless. With the beggar mafia making more than £20 million a year in Mumbai alone, corrupt officers ensure that the trade thrives. According to official figures, as many as 44,000 children fall into the clutches of the beggar mafia in India each year and of these, hundreds are deliberately mutilated. However, some charities say that the figure could be as high as amillion.

Most of the victims are under ten. ‘They are taught the most appropriate place to beg, the kind of people one should approach, and the kind of mannerisms that would make people sympathise,’ says Mufti Imran, a researcher with Save the Children.

 

Shah Rukh Munshi, 11, one of the actors in Slumdog Millionaire poses with his mother next to their home in the slums

‘The more a person is tortured or tormented, the more unfortunate he looks — all this will evoke more sympathy among the people who will then give them alms or gifts,’ he adds. The shocking truth about the beggar mafia emerged last year.

In what was dubbed the ‘arms for alms’ scandal, doctors were filmed by Indian journalists agreeing to cut off the healthy limbs of children for just £100. The maiming of children is now so widespread that even devoutly religious locals refuse to give disabled children money, knowing that it is passed straight to their ‘handlers’ and that they are the pawns of a growing organised crime syndicate.

‘I don’t give them a penny,’ says Father Barnabe D’Souza,a Catholic priest, who has worked with homeless children for 25 years and now runs a refuge to which they can escape and be weaned off drugs. ‘If they approach me on the street, I offer them food, which they don’t want,’ he says. ‘There is no room for emotion. Thisis a business — a mafia. These children are taught how to look as pitiful as possible to get money — and what they earn just get staken from them.’

 

High rise buildings are seen in the foreground of Dharavi in Mumbai, Asia's largest slum

Many of Mumbai’s child beggars live in Dharavi, Asia’s biggest slum. Here, a million people live in a labyrinth of tunnels and walkways where sewage flows openly through the streets and violenceis rife. During my visit to this slum, a group of child beggars stinking of alcohol and solvents press round me, asking for money and pulling at my pockets.

Vicky, at 17 one of the oldest, says he no longer has his money taken from him by the beggar mafia. ‘I’ve started taking the money off the younger children,’ he laughs. Jahan is a ‘street level’ gang master, who, in turn, pays off other gangsters higher up the criminal pecking order. On pain of a savage beating or worse, his children hand over their spoils to him each night.

Working ‘his’ beggars in shifts, he makes around £50 a day — a fortune in a country where the average monthly wage is less than £100. As well as soliciting money from tourists, these children are the life blood of the criminal underworld. They are also used to sell bootleg DVDS and drugs, and to beat up anyone who tries to encroach on their gang master’s patch.

 

A child sits on steps outside a slum dwelling

‘The terrorist attacks mean that there are fewer tourists,’Jahan tells me. ‘So we are selling everything we can until they come back. We have Afghani opium, Kashmiri black, King Charles(cocaine) and pure brown from Pakistan (heroin). I will give you a good price.’

‘We give the police some money — a little something to let them wet their beaks,’ said Jahan, smirking and flashing stained,rotting teeth. Swami Agnivesh, a child-rights activist, says: ‘The beggar mafiais a huge industry and the perpetrators get away scot-free everytime. There is collusion between the lawmakers and lawbreakers.’ Not all the ‘disappeared’ children are maimed or turned into beggars. But all face a truly grim future. According to human rights groups, some are forced into child pornography and used as sex slaves. Others are killed and have their organs sold to wealthy Indians.

 

Street children eat bread on a roadside in Delhi, India's capital

On the approach road to the airport, wealthy businessmen hoping to tap into India’s huge reserves of cheap labour and cash in on the economic miracle drive past hundreds of child beggars, many of whom have been stolen from their parents and mutilated by cruel gangs. It is here the two faces of ‘modern’ India can be seen side by side.

And, despite India’s economic boom, the future looks bleak for millions of the nation’s children. ‘They never really get old,’ says Father Barnabe. ‘They just get replaced with new ones — and cast out on to the street tobecome beggars or die. That’s the way life is here — it neverchanges.’

By Andrew Malone

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Children from poor family backgrounds are more likely to be shorter in height than their well-fed peers. This new report has been revealed after a study conducted at University of Montreal, Canada. The researchers showed that continuous poverty during toddler years can curb the height of children by the time they reach kindergarten.

"Children from families experiencing a persistent lack of money to cover their basic needs risk facing a growth delay," said Dr. Louise Seguin, " Children who experienced consistent poverty were more likely to have delayed growth versus children whose basic needs were met," she added.

For the study, the researchers analysed the data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. The researchers suggest that health inequalities directly related to poverty is even common in industrialized countries.

Professor Maria-Victoria Zunzunegui revealed that those inequities translate to deficient nutrition, bad housing conditions that can cause breathing illnesses such as asthma that in turn can lead to shorter stature.
In addition to these environmental problems, poor children are often exposed to multiple psycho-social adversities. These hardships can lead to chronic stress that can affect their health as well as their growth.

The study demonstrates the need for economic policies to support parents with young children so that they have the sufficient economic resources to cover their basic needs in both the short and long term to ensure their normal development.

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What better way to create community awareness of serious problems going on not only in your backyard but around the world than with advertising.

This Billboards brings awareness of homelessness to those walking and driving by in India.

1.

Source: Stefanstroe

2. These tent cards were placed around coffee shops and restaurants India. They showed a child hidden in the middle of the card and the copy read, "Over two lakh children live in places you can never imagine."

Source: Ads of the World

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Shelter is a basic human need. It is not surprising that the effects of homelessness on children and families appear to be harsh and multifaceted. According to one study, homeless women are significantly more likely to have low birth weight babies than are similar poor women who are housed.

Other reports says that, compared to the general population of children, homeless children have twice as many health problems, are more likely to go hungry, and have higher rates of developmental delay. Although findings have not been consistent, higher rates of depression, anxiety, and behavior problems have been reported for homeless children. Because, collecting reliable and comprehensive information about the population of homeless families with children is very difficult. Accurately estimating the size, scope, and impact of homelessness among families with children in India has been almost impossible.

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