Street Kids of Mumbai, The
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Synopsis
This film reveals the brutal reality of life on the streets and in the slums of Mumbai, following the daily struggles of four young children to survive.

A few weeks after running away from his abusive stepmother, eleven year old Salam is living rough outside the main train station. Befriended by a gang of begging boys, run by 20 year old Asif, Salam speaks fondly of his new ’brother’. But it soon appears that there is a much darker side to being in Asif’s gang. Deepa is lucky to be alive after rats attacked her when she was just three months old. Now aged seven, she runs barefoot through the hectic Mumbai traffic to sell flowers to help support her family, doing shifts of up to 20 hours at a time. She lives with her grandmother and brothers, surviving on less than £1 a day after her alcoholic father died and her mother abandoned them. Twins Hussain and Hussan, aged 11, live in a shanty town, balanced precariously on a water pipe. Five days a week they collect scrap metal and plastic bottles to sell so they can earn money to eat. They say they like where they live: ‘We are emperors of the night!’ Dispatches provides a deeply moving portrait of the lives of India’s real slumdogs, blighted by substance abuse, hardship and heartache, yet proof of the infinite resilience of children.

Duration
1 x 60'
Definition
HD
Genre
Factual
Subgenre
Documentary Special
Producer
TRUE VISION PRODUCTIONS LTD