Slumdogs, Dalits & Poverty
- For anyone who hasn't seen Slumdog Millionaire, it is the story of a boy named Jamal Malik who grows up in the slums of India presumptively as one of some 170 million Dalits.
- Since Dalits are considered outside of Caste, Jamaal and other young children beg and steal for money or be forced into slavery.
- Jamal, his brother Salim, and a young girl, Latika all dream of jumping the massive hurdle into an upper-caste life full of wealth and glory.
- The film gave perfect examples of the lives of Dalit children. They are likely to become beggars, beg for food to survive, forced into child prostitution, or be abducted by gangsters where they are permanently disabled to increase they're chances for tips as beggars.
- Although not mentioned specifically in the film, the scene where Jamal jumps into the human waste pit is something Dalits were forced to deal with. Many are forced into lowly jobs like cleaning up human excrement by hand, or disposing of any desist bodies.
- As the children grow up, Jamal gets a job working as a tea server in a call center; this is a job often reserved for the "untouchables".
- When Jamal gets his chance on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" the host and the audience laugh in his face when he tells them his occupation. This is another example of Caste discrimination.
- From this we can infer that the TV host and the Police are Brahmins, or of a higher caste than Jamal.
- After Jamal starts answering questions correctly the host of the show becomes suspicious as to how a "slumdog" or Dalit could have obtained this knowledge. The police then arrest Jamal, even though he did not commit a crime, and abuse him to find out how he knew the answers to the questions; assuming he was cheating.
- Jamal explained to them that he learned all his answers through experience and growing up as a Dalit.