Hidden truth behind slum dog

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 2014)

The movie Slumdog Millionaire portrays the reality of child labor through the childhood of the main protagonist Jamal Malik. It shows how child labor is still rampant nowadays because the circumstances if the children forces compliances them to accept low pay and appalling conditions. Jamal through this narration tells how the children are forced to be laborers and must work all day, and the pay is infinitesimal. However, since education is the only way out of poverty, and these children do not have the rights to it, they can only turn to these exploiters. It is unfair on the children's part, because they are resigned to this life not of their own accord, but of their poverty and inability to get a decent education.
Though many see it as a violation of fundamental rights, these people who practice it believe that they are not only giving these children a life, they are merely using them for work only. There is no abuse. However, in the movie we are shown examples where Salim gangs up against the children to give them fear so that they obey. Life without freedom is worse than death. Child labor can only stop through efforts to give children schooling. Thus, the movie reminds us that child labor is prevalent in India and other third world countries where such behavior at one point turns into a norm. We must understand that the children do not have a choice. It is the vicious cycle of poverty that forces these children to give in to torture.