Book sales will help the real Indian Slumdog Millionaire kids

Feb 14 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IN the hit film Slumdog Millionaire brothers Jamal and Salim beg and steal on India’s train network.

Thousands of children like them live on the platforms of stations across the country.

Every time a train pulls in they scamper across the tracks, climb on board and go through the rubbish to see if there is anything they can sell.

At night they sleep where they can – some in corrugated iron containers at the end of the platform.

The plight of these little children, some as young as five, has touched Northern Rail employee Paul Salveson, of Huddersfield.

He has written a booklet about the social history of railways in the north of England and a slice of the proceeds will be going to the Railway Children, a charity which helps runaway and abandoned children who live in and around the world’s railway stations.

Northern Rail Heritage is a readable, illustrated introduction to where the world’s railways began, bringing the story up to the present day.

Paul, 55, who lives in Golcar, works for Northern Rail as their head of government and community strategies. He has a lifelong interest in railway history and was honoured with an MBE last year for his work in championing the cause of community rail lines – notably the Penistone Line.

“Too often railway history is just about locomotives,” says Paul.“My short introduction highlights the role that people have played in railway history – the ordinary railwaymen and women who have kept the trains moving, and the people who used our railways.”

The booklet was first produced for Northern Rail employees and proved popular with non-railway people who got to see it.

“It seems a good idea to make the booklet available to a wider audience and Northern was happy for me to republish it, with some minor changes,” said Paul.