The Real Slumdogs

Katherine Boo’s book, Behind The Beautiful Forevers, portrays the “new life” the people in India live as capitalism and globalism ventures into their lives. These two systems look to promise new and improved social opportunities for all classes, not just the wealthy. However, although this makes it seem like the government of India in the 21st century is progressing towards a more fairer society for all its citizens, the reality is, they are really not progressing at all. Of course, while capitalism and globalization initially gave all citizens, especially the lower classes, hope that more opportunities would be available to them, it seems it has prevaricated it all as these opportunities have been more transformative to the elite and privileged classes than it has for the poor.

In the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ and film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ the protagonists, key figures in both texts, are limited to what they can achieve by their social status within the societies they live in. The protagonist’s status refers mainly to a class system of the rich and the poor and their society being one of economic instability, with lack of opportunities to escape their lives of the lower class. Both ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ convey themes such as poverty, delegation to a class system and education.

Moreover, he lives in a society where the predominant caste system inherently assigns each individual with a predetermined role. Thus, children like Jamal, Salim, and their companion, Latika, become both socially and spatially excluded by society. In fact, they are denied the same opportunities as regular children and their freedoms are regulated by the absent, yet restrictive influence of the social system. It is absent because these kids lack the basic necessities to aid them in their survival; they are on their own, with no one to look out for them except for themselves. On the other hand, the same system limits these kids by denying them access to resources that would help improve their situation (i.e. education, healthcare, etc.). Through the fates of such characters, the viewer is given glimpses into the relatively unexplored, misunderstood and complex world of street children, as their live their lives outside the conventional view of childhood. More often than not, those who are born into such impoverished conditions, remain in the same state, up until their death. Jamal, for instance, becomes a “chai wallah...[who serves] tea [to] people.” His mobility is restricted, and his opportunities are limited due to his lack of education and reduced social status. It also is implied that this is the fate that society has set out for

This sense of being better and more powerful than Eastern countries that is felt in England and the US, leads us to expect social injustices like the ones shown in Slumdog Millionaire are a normal occurrence those living in the third world. The fact that Jamal also escapes his fate of living a life of poverty only gives a somewhat false sense of hope to people in this situation for the movies viewers and helps to “massage” (Koehler, 454) their view on the harsh reality of a culture they barely know. Miles also talks about how the movie plays on our false sense of cultural reality in India, she quotes the Mumbai Mirror about how the term “slumdog” is not a term that is widely recognized in India. They explain that, “It appears to be a British Invention to describe a poor Dharavi kid in a derogatory way.” The use of this coined and somewhat derogatory term only helps in supporting the sense of western dominance over the east by classifying Jamal and many people in similar socioeconomic situation as slumdogs. The authors are both very much in agreement on their theory that one reason Slumdog Millionaire was so popular was because of a combination of ignorance in the targeted westernized audience towards the

The next documentary was titled “Megaslums”. It showed us a different perspective. It had more in common with the functionalist perspective. This is because the people within the Megaslum was independent from the rest of Mumbai. This is because they function on their own, they make their own money, businesses, and everyone has their own duties to the Megaslum. The video we watched was about a mega slum named Dharavi. It is in Mumbai, India. They have around or over one million people living in an area smaller than Central Park in New York City. This is the area which the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” was filmed and aimed to show the lifestyles and things that people from Dharavi encounter every day. How a slum is defined is when there are more than 2 people living in one room. The term social class is important in this movie because they show you that in Mumbai if you live or come from the slum you are considered the lowest class within the area. This is because most people consider the habitants of the slums, people you don’t want to be around, or ever become. The whole population is one social class, even though, many of these small business owners are wealthy because of how their small businesses have thrived over time. The population or people living in Dharavi are considered “Tanning or Untouchables.” This is the bottom social class of the region. Many say that they never can stop being considered an “Untouchable”. They say that one million dollars come out of this slum

These people are all close-knit but are really working hard to be able to provide for their families. They try to pick as much trash as they can so they can so they can make ends meet. They do not care about the conditions they work in they just want their families to to be okay and thrive. 85% of Dharavi’s residents have jobs, they work from the time they wake up in the morning until they go to bed at night. There is only one toilet for 1,400 residents.

The video The Real Slum Dogs gives insight into the lives and conflicts that occur in a large slum in India named Dharavi. The people of Dharavi are among the poorest people in the world. Although, the community of people who were shown in the film worked extremely hard physically as a whole they had very little. Theoretical perspective that was evident in this was the conflict theory. The slum of Dharavi is located right outside the thriving city of Mumbai, and this posses a problem. The city of Mumbai is home to many wealthy people, and thriving businesses. These factors contribute to a high value on the city's real estate. Therefore, much of the property in the city has been bought and developed on. This leads to the wealthy, one group involved

In Katherine Boo’s “Opening Night: The scene from the airport slums,” we see the continual contrast in Mumbai between the extremely poor and the rich. She describes the effects of extreme poverty. The juxtapositions highlight the social disruption, economic disadvantages can cause. We also learn that movie’s depiction of slums is glamorized and unrealistic. Most shocking the author focuses on several characters, mostly young people (like Sunil), and describes the environment they live in. We see the overwhelming effects of extreme poverty in every aspect of their lives and realize they will not be able to escape and rise out of the slums. The lack of education and jobs are preventing these people from progressing. We realize how the rich

The people of dharvai resent the term ‘slum-dog’ and the movie Slumdog Millionaire for coining that phase. They resent the stigma around that name. Stigmas are ‘blemishes’ that discredit a person’s claim to a normal identity.

The project titled Women: Precipitation of Industries, discusses the role played by women-oriented rural families based on Kamala Markandaya’s novel Nectar in a Sieve. The novel reads like a reminiscence of the protagonist Rukmani, from the beginning of her marriage to Nathan, right up o his demise.

They believe that receiving a good education will allow them to leave the slum and will allow them to lead a better and more comfortable lifestyle. c. Social Status/ pg. 97: The position that someone occupies in a social group. I believe that this concept was shown the most in The Real Slumdogs. It was very clear from the beginning, which social status the people in Dharavi represented. Mumbai is India’s largest city and produces hundreds of millions of dollars with its many businesses. However for many living in the slum, drinkable water was inaccessible. These people inhabited the lower end of the social status chain, the poor and less fortunate. They were often looked down upon by other people in society. Along with social status, the film also represents ascribed status. Ascribed status is a position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life. (pg. 98). This is shown during the story of Laxmi. She is a multigenerational “rag picker”, or one whose occupation is to sort trash. Laxmi did not choose this occupation for herself, but was given it at birth given that her family needed her to work and help provide. d. Cultural Relativism/

The most effective way thus far is to visit the people and record the daily life of families or people in their society. Research method is defined as one of seven procedures that sociologists use to collect data; surveys, participant observation, case studies, secondary analysis, documents, experiments, and unobtrusive measures. In the case of The Real Slumdogs, the procedure that was used was participant observation. The director took the people Lakshmi, Babu, Birubi, and Shailesh and followed them around for a certain period of time to see what goes on in their daily lives. In doing so they unveiled many different things about the cultures shared values and way of life. Interviewing these people in this way, they found that they all have a value of getting ahead in life in some way or shape. Take Shailesh and Lakshmi for example. While their goals are different, such as Lakshmi wanting her daughter to get a good education and Shailesh wanting to become a Bollywood star, they both aspire to better some part of their lives. Shailesh wants and has to provide for his family still, but wants to become a big movie star in his own right. While Lakshmi has done better for herself in her own business, she is really trying to improve the life of her daughter. Birubi has the same aspirations for his son. He works tirelessly so that his son can receive a

Additionally, Orissa is a very conservative state, in a very conservative country, and it is generally considered that a female’s place is in the home. In many villages, women will not leave the house except to carry out essential tasks like fetch water or firewood, and even then they will cover their faces entirely with a sari. Women have very limited control over land and other productive assets. This inequality in property rights directly contributes to their low status in the society. These problems are chiefly governed by the lack of social equity, inclusion, gender equity and sustainability. In my community, people below poverty line have to suffer from poor-quality solutions, and every member does not have equal access to same facilities and opportunities. This exclusion

The government also promises to the poor, better schools and hospitals. Balram’s father died because there was improper medical care in their home town, and the life expectancy in India is only 66.8 years. There are nearly 1,189,172,906 people in India and only 61% of the people living in India are literate. In New Delhi, though, the government does fulfill its promises to the rich. They live unaware and uncaring of the slums surrounding their middle class lives. The government makes promises of better livelihoods to its people that are never fulfilled; causing India’s poor to remain in the slums and the government to have little understanding of the problems poor people face.

Halfway through the trip, we drove through the slum part of Madras because the airport is on the outskirts of the city. Most of the slums are located in Anna Nagar, which translates to little brother city. We slowed down considerably here because the roads were unpaved and merely consisted of dirt and cobblestone rocks. The number of people also increased staggeringly when we entered the slums. With the car bumping to the left, right, up, and down I watched as we passed roadside stores or services that ranged greatly. My mother was frightened when she heard bumps and thumps as people brushed against the car trying to get out of the way. As we crawled through the town we saw the left a man with a j shaped knife slicing coconuts and popped straws in it and sold them to people as a meal, and next to him there were people feeding sugarcane through a machine that mashed the cane into a pulp to make juice. We drove past homes made out of sticks or leftover construction equipment like large pipes, and ladies pumping water out of a well. Many of the children in these homes did not even wear any clothes. It was kind of awkward as we drove past them and they