MUMBAI: A documentary titled The Slumdog Children of Mumbai commissioned by UK‘s Channel 4 about the lives of children who live in Mumbai slums was among the honorees at the Rory Peck Awards in London recently. The documentary was made along with Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionaire.

The film lapped up the Sony Professional Impact Award that honours freelance camerawork in either news or current affairs that raises humanitarian issues and whose broadcast has had an international impact or contributed to a change in perception or policy.

Shot over three months through the Monsoon, the film follows the lives of four children: 7-year-old Deepa, who lives next to an open dump and runs barefoot through traffic selling flowers to help support her family; 11-year-old Salaam, who, a few weeks after running away from his abusive stepmother, lives outside the main railway station; and twins Hussan and Hussein, also 11, who risk cholera and infection fishing for scraps in a filthy canal so they can earn money to eat.

According to the director Nick Read, "The documentary was designed to be a complement to Slumdog Millionaire and a counterpoint to the movie."

Rory Peck Awards, the annual international competition honours the skill, courage and enterprise of freelance news and current affairs cameramen and camerawomen.