Thanks Zoe, I am sure that it is not a simple matter. From my minimal understanding there is still a strong caste system in India where the lower caste is considered less than human and these people live in ways we cannot imagine. I actually had trouble sleeping after I saw the movie. In spite of the happy ending it depicted how children are used and abused and it was just disturbing. Now if I were to see it again it would be more so just knowing that, for the children in the movie, it is their actual way of life. I am not faulting the makers of the movie. In fact I think they are making people more aware.

Becky, I did a little research on the "fair compensation" issue. It seems to me like the directors of the film have actually done a thorough job of thinking through an accurate paycheck for these child actors from the slums. They are paying for their schooling (an opportunity they didn't have before) and contributing to a charity that advocates for poverty-stricken kids in India. From all I hear, Danny Boyle, the director was particularly concerned about simply throwing money at this family, for the basic reason that a poor family from Mumbai might get into more trouble by going from "rags to riches" so quickly. It's a complicated issue--one that requires looking at more factors than simply "how much should they be paid?" but also, "what is the best way to compensate them." Anyway, just wanted to add a little background to the controversy.

This is so sad. In the US when a child would have a part in such a successful film we would expect that the child and his family would be raised up out of their poverty. In India the culture is much different I am told. I really enjoyed the movie but now I wonder if children weren't exploited to make it, similarly to how such exploitation was depicted in the movie. What a sad irony.