A research project guided me to visit slums in Mumbai and I found myself in Bandra slums on 27th February 2010. This is a famous area because the child actors of Slumdog Millionaire are from the same locality. It was a time for reality check as well as value clarification for me. I think first time in my life I saw vertical slums and I wondered how anybody can stretch the legs inside. The ground floor or underground floors are in worst conditions which are filled with water every year during rainy season. There is a central pipe line which is the main road for slum dwellers and they live on both the sides of this.
You will think that it is a window which is actually the entrance of the room (hardly 5” X 6”) where Rafeeq lives with his 3 children. I somehow managed to enter into this room which is the whole life for them. The other window-cum-gate opens into a garbage field where plastic bags & stinking waste material is lying submerged into sewage water & excreta. To my damn surprise he is paying 2000 Rs as a rent for this small box which we call home.
Rafeeq lost his wife 12 years ago when she died in the same room struggling with anaemia & jaundice during pregnancy. He used to sell vada-pao few years ago till the day a speeding car hit him and he lost his leg; to make the matter worse he had to borrow a lot of money for amputation & medication. Now he is unemployed and the only source of income is his 12 years old son Taiyab who sells toys every evening roaming in the financial capital of India. Taiyab is studying in class 7th with the help of an NGO and he wants to become a Social Worker but he is extremely worried for his sister’s marriage who has crossed 19 now.
Drinking water is the biggest luxury for the slum dwellers as everyday people are fighting to get water from the rare water tap. All of the taps are situated very low and very often they are submerged into sewage water, but people have no choice and they dip their bottles to somehow trap the contaminated water to drink.
Another boy Anil from the Bandra slums recollects that a film director used to come to the slums and he offered many children to come to film studio for the test. “I was also in one of those kids but I was too scared to go to the film studio and I lost the chance. All those kids who went are now rich and famous. They are now in America and I am here” says Anil as he regrets and hopes that someday another director will come and he will be the chosen one. When Anil came to Delhi for a street children workshop he made a poster of his dream movie- Return of the Slumdog. I am scared to think about its possibilities in the present scenario but I am with him on this journey because I want to see all children like Anil getting what they deserve.
I have no idea how much money Slumdog Millionaire made and how much they invested into the development of slums from where the movie came out. May be they want to keep the subject alive. But our own Bollywood industry is also breaking records every time in earning money. Recently Ghazani & 3 idiots made record breaking collection and now My Name Is Khan is claiming to accumulate 1500 million already. Another Khan has grabbed 350 millions for just an advertisement. I have read news reports claiming that all big stars (including our Big B) are donating a lot of money for poor people but where is that so called Social Responsibility Effect which our cine stars claim by doing charity-cum-publicity? I heard that in some areas in Mumbai, people are paying around 30,000 per month just as a maintenance cost for their luxurious apartments. I would not expect them to jump from there but at least they can come out of their Bisleri bottles and see the creatures that live in their dumping yard. . Asking for help from them will be too much as they might have already satisfied their ego by getting rid of old cloths & utensils and making the day of their servant.
I came out of those slums but it bruised my heart somewhere. Sitting in my comfortable office now I am unable to complain about anything in my life. I think of Taiyab, Anil, Kajal and hundreds of children like them and hope that I would be able to bring some positive changes in their lives. But at times I feel so discouraged by my limitations and the indifferent attitude of all of us. Then I feel like a culprit and wish I could embrace all those children and cry out my apology- “Sorry dear, I knew you are in so much pain but I didn’t do anything for you. Please forgive me.”
--- bodhisatvavivek@gmail.com
