Slumdog Millionaire swept the Oscar’s with 8 awards! What a moment for the people of Mumbai. To be seen. To have their conditions witnessed. This fictionalized account of life in Mumbai was filled with reality and truth. The locations are real: masses of people forced to live without dignity, devoid of basic human rights, stripped of their humanity. The conditions are real: high-density dilapidated housing with open sewers; scarcity of water; horrific pollution; destitution and poverty; corruption; maiming; sweatshops.

These are the conditions the cooperatives we work with at Pico’s Worldwide are fighting everyday. This is the life we hope to affect through promotion of fair trade. After viewing the movie I was compelled to interview some of our suppliers located within the regions depicted in this film. Much of the filming was done in the slum areas of Dharavi, Juhu, and Nehru Nagar. MarketPlace: Handwork of India is a non-profit fair trade organization located in this region. They state

“Unlike some cities, where the poor areas are confined to separate sections (usually a comfortable distance from the business districts and expensive housing), in Mumbai the shantytowns are all over. They fit between and around affluent areas like liquid filling any available space. Many were originally built on swamp land that squatters filled in with coconut leaves and garbage before building small homes and shops of brick, cement, corrugated metal, tarpaulins and materials containing asbestos.”

Handmade Expressions, another fair trade producer of goods made in India, spoke to us of the crime and violence that exists there. The atrocity of acts like maiming children to produce more sympathy as beggars is horrifically true to life.

“With the utter lack of opportunity and without any external or government support, many people living here do not see any way of sustenance other than crime.”

So what do we, as viewers, take away from this movie? My hope is that we leave the theaters with an awareness of our responsibilities as world citizens. Our globalization has gone too far to consider ourselves helpless or removed. Each time we spend a dollar we make a choice in how we impact the world. Thus, we can affect change by choosing to become a more responsible consumer.

In our industrialized world we are no longer responsible for procuring the goods needed for our daily sustenance or pleasure. We do not have to hunt or gather, tool and hone, carve or craft. We simply need to walk down an aisle of a super store and make our selections. In these circumstances it becomes easy to forget that, despite our mechanization, a human being sweated and toiled to fill this store’s shelves.

Consumerism itself is not an inherent evil. Trade has been a primary component in the evolution of civilization. Trade began as an exchange of goods that was agreed to be of equal value and mutually beneficial. Sadly, it has evolved into a system of commerce that is beneficial to some and injurious to others. In many instances commerce has morphed into coercion. But it does not have to be this way. In fact, responsible consumerism can aid us in rectifying some of the atrocities you witnessed in Slumdog Millionaire and many other poverty ridden areas of the world. To do this, our purchasing decisions cannot be simply price-driven: we must consider what contribution (or lack thereof) our purchase will make to the livelihoods and circumstances of others.

Fair trade cooperatives, through vocational training and financial assistance, increase economic opportunities through a form of self employment when no other opportunities exist. As workers begin to provide support for their families, a sense of dignity is returned to them. This begins a gradual shift in the mindset of entire communities; one of hope and the belief in self improvement,; one where an individual may aspire to more than simply survival and begin to explore the multifarious aspects of their internal and external worlds.

This is, however, contingent on a market for their goods. Next time you make a purchase, hold the images of Slumdog in your mind’s eye and ask yourself if you can spend just a little more to become a part of the solution. When you don your cute new shirt, swing that darling handbag, fill your hand-woven basket, set your table, or watch your child cuddle with her stuffed animal wouldn’t it be good to know that it was not at the price of starvation, destitution, and child welfare? Wouldn’t it warm your heart to know, instead, it was one small but vital way to bring about change?

Slumdog Millionaire has a happy ending. But that’s the part that is pure fiction. And in Mumbai a bit of glitter and glam fell upon the slums for a day. But that lasted no longer than a snowflake touching warm ground. A happy ending in real life is up to us. Please support fair trade – together we can make a difference in the lives of others.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.