Sadak Chhap
Documentary Examines the Lives of the Street Kids of Mumbai

The audio for this story will be available online after 12PM ET, 9AM PT.

Part I: Life with India's Ragpickers

Part II: Helping India's Street Children

Part III: The Barefoot Doctor

Part IV: Looting the Rajdhani

Julian Crandall Hollick on the street in Mumbai. Photo: Martine Crandall-Hollick

Music from the Series, by L. Subramaniam "Horn Theme" "Violin Theme" "Short Theme"

March-June, 2002 -- Julian Crandall Hollick had lots of reasons for deciding to document the lives of the pavement-dwellers of Mumbai, India. But one of the chief ones was that he wanted to examine this sub-culture without falling back on the usual clichés of Western media.

He began noticing in the 1980s that coverage of deprivation in places like Ethiopia "very much tended to romanticize poverty." The subjects were almost invariably portrayed in one-dimensional terms -- as morally pure, unhappy victims of forces beyond their control. Either that or the more "exotic" aspects of their lives are highlighted --"they're eating with their toes, or whatever."

The reality, of course, is more complex. As Hollick shows in his series "Apna Street," poverty doesn't make people noble -- often, it just makes them practical, even to the point of amorality.

And as he shows in this four-part subset of "Apna Street" in which he focuses on the street kids of Mumbai, it also tends to toughen the characters even of young children. Most of the Sadak Chhaps (which means, "Stamp of the Street"), are streetwise and wary. Hollick spent long periods of time with them before they trusted him enough to tell him their stories, and before they let him in on their secrets of surviving in the rough streets of Mumbai.

There are 31 segments in the "Apna Steet," series. Weekend Edition Sunday presented several of the segments in 1995, and again in 1997 and 1998. Some focused on the day-to-day struggles of the "pavement dwellers." Others examined the reasons why so many people make their homes in the streets of Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Still others looked at the highly industrious methods by which many pavement dwellers better their lot in a society that in many ways does little to encourage the poor to improve their lives.

The story of the Sadak Chhaps appears on NPR for the first time with this four-part series.


Other Resources

Julian Crandall Hollick's production company site includes the entire Apna Street series and several more of his radio documentaries.

A Web site about street kids in India, created by former street kids.


Also on NPR

Part I of Hollick's 1999 three-part series on the monsoon -- perhaps the most important natural event in much of Asia, especially in India.

Part II of the monsoon series.

Part III of the monsoon series.

Hollick's 1999 essay in which the radio documentarian reflects the temporary loss of his hearing.

E-mail this Page

 

Recipient's e-mail address:	» Up to twelve addresses, separated by commas.
Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Personal message (optional, 600 characters max):
Your NPR member station:
Are you a member of your local NPR station?	Yes    No
Would you like to receive information from your local NPR member station? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes    No
Please send me updates from NPR.	Yes    No
(Information collected by NPR will be used solely for internal NPR or NPR member station purposes and only if you selected 'yes' above. See NPR's privacy policy for more information.)