There is a particular scene in Slumdog Millionaire that shows two criminals burning the eyes of a child to make him more of a successful beggar. While many officials claim that it is an old and outdated way to make India seem as if it is a violent country. There have been numerous reports on the real Slumdogs of India; where children are deliberately crippled to earn more money. Thousands of children are abandoned and left on the streets to take care of themselves and sometimes their younger siblings. In the movie, Salim is the older brother of Jamal and takes over the man in the family role. Everyday many children are forced to beg for food to survive, and often can be approached by people posing as social workers with promises of a better way to live their life. The children then mutilated somehow to make them handicapped and able to make more money from begging. 

Narasimha Palagummi is from India and has been in the United States for the past 11 years. While growing up in India he witnessed first hand the mutilation that children have been put through in order to gain more pity from tourists and make more money,

            “Walking in the cities of Hyderabad, you are able to see children with no arms begging for money all day. That is how they make money. Each street, corner, and sidewalk is filled with kids begging.”

The abandoned children have had their arm or leg cut off, a broken leg that was not allowed to heal properly, or made blind. Small girls are forced to walk around with a newborn baby all day to earn more money. Children are taught how to look more hurt or play up their handicap to become better beggars. Each child is forced to beg for money all day and each night must give their earnings to the individuals in charge of them. The practice of crippling children and making them beg for money has become so widespread it has been named “beggar mafia.” Roopesh Comargiri has lived in India and has recently watched the film. He understood the situations dealing with the children and the “beggar mafia,” although he had never heard that term before. He has walked down the streets of Hyderabad and had crippled children approach him begging for any amount of money he would be willing to give.   

The men in charge of the operations are taking children from the streets and are also stealing children from the hospital. Doctors are being paid off to perform amputations or to turn their heads while children are being stolen from the parents. Some healthy children that have been abducted by the “beggar mafia” are killed and their organs are sold to wealthier families with a sick child.

Another scene in Slumdog Millionaire cuts to a normal day in Jamal’s childhood taking a group bath, when a raid ensues on his part of the slums. His mother is killed during the raid, and the boys are running for their lives. They find a police car and beg for help, but are told to leave. They were not going to be helped by the police, so they had to find a place to hide to survive the raid. Palagummi thought that Slumdog Millionaire had an accurate portrayal on how corrupt the police can be,

            “The police and government in India are very corrupt. They are able to be bought off and people with money are able to do pretty much whatever they want, if they are wealthy enough to make it happen. People in the United States have heard of or been a part of instances where some police sections are corrupt, but normally Americans can trust their police. If someone is being robbed, raped, or something along those lines, you can trust the police to try and stop it. In India that sort of reliance and trust in the police is not possible.”

According to India Corruption Study 2005 more than half of the respondents that dealt with the police filed a complaint of corruption. The study found that 70 percent of households in India that have approached the police for something have used different ways of influencing the police; such as bribery, middlemen, and using the power of different people. One other statistic the study found was that nine out of ten of households in India perceive the Indian police force to be corrupt. Sanjay Gupta lives in New York City and is originally from India. He also thought the India police are a corrupt organization,

            “It is difficult over in India to be able to trust the police to do their job. People feel that even if they do call on the police, sometimes nothing will be accomplished.”

It is common knowledge the inequalities women face in India, but Slumdog Millionaire put the more grotesque inequalities on our living room television sets. Teenage girls are forced to have sex with older men for profit, their rights completely stripped away. They can then be sold as objects to men and are forced to do whatever is asked of them. Money and power play a big role in the mistreating of women in India and more particularly the slums.

There have been reports on how people in India have criticized the film for making India seem like a poor and disgusting country. According to a story by Time, a lot of metro-dwellers see the movie and think it is more of “poverty porn” than a real life depiction of India. Their sense of pride in their country has been hurt by Slumdog Millionaire. Even some people who live in the slums of India have taken offense to not the film and the depiction of their lives, but in the title itself. They feel the word slumdog refers to all people living in slums are dogs. They feel it is a human’s right issue, calling everyone that lives in slums dogs. In response, director of Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle, has said that he did not mean for the title to be offensive. His interpretation of the title deals with an underdog coming up from the slums, using his life experiences to make a better life for himself. In the movie, Jamal, goes from the slums and uses everything he has learned throughout his life to win the popular game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Boyle insists he did not intend to call the people who live in the slums, dogs. How accurate was the film in depicting life in the slums?

 Rhys Blakely, a reporter for Times Online, went to India and showed the film to 30 children who lived in the slums of India. He wrote about their reactions to the film and what the real 'slumdog millionaires' thought, 

     “Once the final credits have rolled, I ask who has enjoyed the film. Thirty hands shoot up immediately. Danny Boyle's movie, the most talked-about British film in years, may have won a powerful cohort of enemies in India and overseas, but among these real-life 'slumdogs' the director has become a hero. 'The film is true to life,' says Rupesh, who claims to be 17 but looks several years younger.”

All of the 30 children agreed with the movie and how it depicted their lives. They thought it gave them a voice, it gave them hope. They connected with the film on an emotional level; they all felt win the video won awards, they won too.