Surviving Mumbai's Streets: Poor Kids Of India | Real Stories Documentary

foreign [Music] [Music] four children who live in the slums and on the streets of Mumbai India's largest city [Music] this is the story of three months in their lives through the monsoons a time of hardship and danger [Music] fending for themselves these children reach adulthood before they are ready before they should [Music] [Music] foreign kidnap you okay Salam ran away from home a few weeks ago he can't remember exactly when nor precisely how old he is he thinks he's 11 but birthdays have been and Gone without celebration and he has no papers or parents to remind him now his life revolves around where the next meal is coming from salaam lives in the shadow of Victoria Terminus mumbai's largest station thousand Indie children go many of them show up here the end of the line [Applause] [Music] and face a host of risks harassment to gang violence [Music] his journey here meters away father remarried foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] has survived his first days alone but with the monsoons on the way and this area overrun by street gangs and drug dealers he'll find it hard to cope um foreign populated cities over half its 18 million residents live in the slums Islam in Indira nagar is a shanty town balance precariously on a three meter wide water pipe home to over 350 families [Applause] fresh water is only available for three hours a day here there are no toilets and those who have electricity tap it illegally for eleven-year-old twins Hassan and Hussein it's a dark dangerous place to call home [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] the twins live with their parents and older brother in a space four meters by three during the day they are left to their own devices [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] s go to work collecting scrap metal and plastic bottles to sell [Music] locals call it rag picking [Music] despite the threat of Cholera and infection the canal provides them with some unlikely Treasures foreign [Music] India has the largest number of child workers in the world the government estimates 13 million local charities say it's as high as a hundred million wolves [Music] [Music] seven-year-old deeper sells flowers for a living [Music] [Music] deeper works at the traffic lights at bandra West one of mumbai's most expensive shopping areas her day started at the flower market at five this morning [Music] Deepa used to work only at weekends and go to school during the week recently she has had to drop out to help support her family today after hours of dodging traffic she has earned the equivalent of 75 cents deeper lives in the vast kardander slum in the Heart of the City beside an open rubbish dump go to my gallery she lives with her grandmother and two brothers in a single room without sanitation or running water money has been tight ever since deepa's father died two years ago um [Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] foreign father died age just 27 young even by the standards of the slums deeper herself was fortunate to survive Beyond infancy as a baby she was attacked by rats don't know what the tonight sorry when deepa's father died her mother deserted deeper and her brothers she still lives close by with her youngest son but she's barely seen her other children for nearly two years foreign [Music] the monsoons have arrived in Mumbai here in the slums the streets turn into open sewers but for young slumdogs there are new places to play beside the pipeline the overflowing Canal means 11 year old twins Hassan and Hussein can take time off work [Applause] the deeper it's business as usual but people are reluctant to buy flowers in the wet and her Sails are down [Music] um to escape the rain eleven-year-old salaam rides the trains aimlessly Fair dodging and Scavenging for food for two months now salaam has been on his own the streets around Victoria Terminus his home he keeps his few possessions in the branch of a tree today [Applause] every week up to 30 unaccompanied children arrive at Victoria terminus poverty violence and broken families begging here is a better option than starvation and neglect back home many are alone for the first time is learning the ropes from a gang of older boys become his new family foreign of the streets and the gang's leader he runs the boys as a team of Beggars and looks after their earnings is it Asif also relies on the younger boys to look after him two years ago he was hit by a train and lost his right leg accidents on the railways are common some of these boys are paid by the station police to pick up body parts off the tracks in Mumbai up to 10 people die every day Asif was lucky to have survived president a thief in the gang have introduced Salam to their drug of choice Whitener the local equivalent of paint thinner a highly toxic solvent which they inhale from a cloth [Applause] all right okay guys [Music] [Music] Not For the First Time The Gang is moved on if it rains again they'll get little sleep tonight [Applause] among mumbai's poor alcohol and drug abuse is widespread pipeline slum husan and Hussein have to deal with the consequences At Close Quarters excuse me that's it as the family's main Breadwinner the twins mother nor Jahan is too busy to parent her sons in the way she'd like to [Music] know foreign foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign enough [Music] foreign Festival when Hindus celebrates their elephant-headed deity Lord Ganesh the god of auspicious beginnings it's a time when most kids join the parades but not deeper [Music] she now has her hands full looking after a new arrival in their tiny home her baby brother rupesh [Music] last week deepa's mother turned up to dump the one and a half year old on the Family foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign families survive on less than two dollars a day but deepa's household isn't even making that by next year India is predicted to be the world's fastest growing economy but at the last count there are at least 11 million kids living rough two hundred thousand of them in Mumbai salaam is too stoned to do any begging and is short of money [Applause] [Music] in time the effects of the solvent wear off and hunger returns salaam has heard there is free food at the local church Hall every Friday over 200 homeless children come for a bath a change of clothes and a proper meal [Applause] for many of the street kids including Salam this is the only meal they'll have today ready for the dance [Music] in Mumbai there are over 60 organizations that try and help Street kids [Music] Santosh kaotalka works for a British charity called Railway children he arrived in Mumbai as a runaway himself and lived in and around Victoria Terminus for 17 years foreign [Music] Tosh Bears the scars of a childhood spent on the streets he was lucky to survive an assault by a gang of drug dealers [Music] Escape Santosh cares for these boys as if they were his own if they are being abused or harassed that Santosh they turn to even if it's just for a free lunch Santosh hasn't met salaam before and wants to know how he came by his scars [Music] foreign gradually salaam opens up and reveals he'd like to go to school stream is to become a computer engineer [Music] Santosh knows how these gangs operate from bitter personal experience he has noticed how close twenty-year-old Asif and 11 year old salaam seem to be [Music] when he asks some of the younger gang members they allege that Asif is sexually abusing them [Music] worried about Salam Santosh takes him aside foreign foreign [Music] [Applause] Festival marking the end of the monsoon season it's when statues of the Hindu god are immersed in the sea on mumbai's coastline Legend has it the deity will take with him all the misfortunes of mortal man Asif has brought salaam for a day out for salaam it's a rare Carefree moment chance to act his age nothing crazy in recent weeks salaam has come to think of Asif and his gang's family memories of his own relatives are fading [Music] foreign foreign still can't return to work or school with her grandmother out at work she has to babysit her one and a half year old brother rupesh who has been dumped on the Family [Music] Anthony [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] Daddy [Music] yeah she's wet and hungry deeper and her grandmother can't afford medicine if he gets sick but with swine flu sweeping through the slums he's at risk nearly 2 million under fives die in India's slums and Villages every year one every 15 seconds her and her grandmother can do is appeal to her mother to take baby rupesh back first they have to find him [Music] [Music] everybody charity worker Santosh is also searching for salaam he has good news he's found him a place in a residential school somewhere where he'll be safe foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is in danger and alerts his colleagues to keep a lookout assalamu [Music] with several million kids on Mumbai streets salaam is not going to be found easily foreign in the pipeline slum Muslims are celebrating the start of Ramadan their most important Festival of the year when the faithful fast during the day and only eat after dusk it's an exciting time for twins Hassan and Hussein an excuse to stay up all night with their friends [Music] Saturday [Music] the boys had promised they would return to school at Ramadan but now they seem to have changed their minds [Music] [Music] looks so tiny the bathroom were attention [Music] there's still no sign of salon [Music] but Santosh hears that Asif is back outside Victoria terminus [Music] he claims to know nothing about salaam's disappearance Santosh puts the allegations of sexual abuse to him directly foreign [Music] foreign clothed officer shows up um foreign [Music] thank you with only the street boys as Witnesses the police officer decides a case against the thief won't stick and lets him off with a caution foreign [Music] still missing Santosh doesn't trust Asif to stay away he needs to find Salam fast and get him out of Harm's Way deepest grandmother is looking after rupesh who is still playing up and may be unwell banana rejected by her own mother seven-year-old deeper knows she may soon have to work full-time to support her family she doesn't know if she can return to school and a sense of uncertainty is growing [Music] is it cold outside [Music] um in there Santosh finally found salaam in a doorway near the station he seems unharmed and has agreed to go with Santosh to take his place at a boarding school for homeless Boys called The Don Bosco shelter foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] salaam won't find it an easy transition from the streets to an institution for the first two months he will be sent out to the city to wean him off his drug addiction Santosh is nervous he will run away again now it's up to salaam to see it through and leave the streets behind for good [Music] thank you since filming was completed deeper continues to look after her youngest brother and only occasionally makes it a school there's still no sign of her mother [Music] Hassan and Hussein continue to ragpick they have yet to return to school and have no plans to do so Salam has not run away and is now off drugs since entering the Don Bosco shelter he has made several new friends [Music] oh [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 229,953

Keywords: India documentary, Mumbai city life, at-risk youth, child exploitation, child labor, child protection services, child trafficking awareness, children in need, documentary film, homeless children, homeless youth, humanitarian efforts, makeshift shelters, monsoon season, poverty alleviation programs, poverty documentary series, poverty initiatives, street dwellers, survival stories, vulnerable youth

Id: L1WQnlf3Wk4

Length: 47min 16sec (2836 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 14 2023