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Abstract
This paper reflects on the formation of peer groups among street children in Mumbai and upon the author's experience of ethnographic filmmaking with these children. Managing without conventional family structures, these children rely on a network of relations based on friendship, origins and survival. At an early age, they become autonomous social actors, actively seeking social knowledge and carving out their own network of social relations and support. The paper observes that the autonomous nature of street life allows the children to inhabit a seemingly harsh environment in a characteristically playful and imaginative way. It argues that observational filming as a research method is especially well suited to the task of attempting to ‘see’ through the eyes of street children and asserts that in doing so, the street is transformed from a place of deprivation into a vast and open canvas which offers endless possibilities for fun, excitement—and a different sort of education.
Notes
1. For further discussion of issues relating to the definition of ‘street children’, see Cosgrove (Citation1990); Lusk (Citation1992); Ennew (1994); Aptekar (1994); Le Roux (1996); Panter-Brick (Citation2001). Many children seen on the streets of developing countries are not homeless but are working to earn money for their families; others have left home but maintain at least some intermittent contact with their families; some have fled in order to avoid abusive relationships at home. The boundaries between such categories can be very fluid. In India's big cities, where there are large numbers of pavement dwellers, the whole family may be living on the street in any case. On street children in India, see Mandal (Citation1990), Pandey (Citation1991), Phillips (Citation1994) and Shukla (Citation2005).
2. The Pardhis are one of several ex-criminal (denotified) tribes living in Maharastra. Originally hunter-gatherers, displaced from their land by the British, they were administratively identified as Criminal Tribes in pre-Independence India because their (forced) nomadic status and lack of economically transferable skills caused the British to conclude they could only survive through criminal activity. Though the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 was annulled soon after Independence, the police, as well as members of the public, continue to treat persons belonging to these communities as born and habitual criminals. Consequently, they remain probably one of the most disadvantaged and discriminated groups. Many have ended up struggling to make a living on the streets of Mumbai where they are victimised by police brutality and discriminated against by all other sections of society.
3. The streets of Colaba have now been largely ‘cleared’ of Pardhis and other street-dwelling people.
4. This and the following dialogue is spoken in English but all others are translated into English from Hindi or Pardhi.
5. I had very little money at this time and the boys knew this. I was able to cover their daily food and travel expenses but nothing more stable for the future. It was not until four or five years later that I was able to give a substantial contribution towards the cost of building a house in a Pardhi settlement in Sholapur. Bhajay was by this time married to Anita, one of Ravi's sisters, and they had two children of their own; this was where they had chosen to make their base.
6. Mark worn by Hindus on the forehead, symbolising the third eye.
7. Goddess, the Hindu mother goddess who manifests as all the individual goddesses, or in this instance, Durga.
8. Bhajay later married Anita and they had three children.
9. None of this footage was included in the final film because a natural narrative emerged during the edit in which such a conscious break in narrative technique and style would have been out of place. The footage will be of use in future projects.
10. It could also have been a hard-line Hindu, offended at seeing his desi deities polluted by the ‘foreign’ imposter.
11. The twelve jyotirlingas are shrines were Lord Shiva is worshipped in the form of a Jyotirlingam or ‘Lingam (pillar) of Light’.
12. In contrast to a destination like Goa, for example, where foreigners are known to frequently take underage children for sex.
13. The old man acted as a watchman and gardener of the ghat and lived a simple, humble existence based on devotion, prayer and charity.
14. Hindu ascetics, those who have chosen to live life apart from or on the edges of society in order to focus on their own spiritual practice.
15. Large Shankha shell blown as a trumpet during Hindu worship.
16. Literally meaning ‘a gracious gift’, anything usually edible that is first offered to a deity or saint and then distributed in His/Her name with the deity's blessings residing within it.
17. Meaning ‘sight’ referring to vision of the God/Goddess through an image, object or person.
18. Hand made hashish.
19. A preparation of leaves and flowers (buds) of the female cannabis plant (ganja) eaten or consumed as a beverage in India.
20. Devotional Hymn.