Madonna visits the slums of Mumbai as the latest stop on her Indian holiday

Wearing a black jacket, T-shirt and jeans, Madonna spent nearly 45 minutes with the impoverished residents, who gave her gifts of orange bead-and-coin necklaces.

Millions of people live in makeshift huts in slums along railway lines and roads in Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment centre.

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Madonna, who has been on holiday in India since Christmas, was accompanied by her husband Guy Ritchie.

The couple have spent the past week in the northwestern desert state of Rajasthan, visiting forts and seeing in the New Year in a desert camp.

The singer and her husband went directly from Mumbai's airport to the downtown shanty township.

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Australian author Gregory David Roberts, who made the Mumbai slum his home in the early 1980s, also joined the couple.

Roberts worked for the city's crime bosses and set up a free health clinic in the slum when he took refuge in Mumbai after escaping from an Australian high-security prison.

The slum features prominently in Roberts' best-seller "Shantaram," which is being adapted into a film starring Johnny Depp and directed by Indian filmmaker Mira Nair.

Earlier this week Madonna had spent an afternoon at the Lord Shrinathji temple in Nathdawara near Udaipur.

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It is understood that the singer wanted to give thanks after gaining the formal custody of her two-year-old adopted son, David Banda.

Nathdawara is famous for its Krishna temple, which houses the 12th century idol of the Shrinathji, or Krishna.

The idol was moved in the 17th century from Govardhan hill, near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, to protect it from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's campaign against Hindu worship in his empire.

Millions of devotees come to the temple every year.

After spending some time at the temple, Madonna drove back to Udaipur.

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Madonnna, accompanied by her husband, son and some family friends arrived in Jaipur on New Year's Eve from the Maldives.

Rajasthan has become one of the latest holiday hotspot for celebrities

Mick Jagger and L'Wren Scott, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and Liz Hurley and Arun Nayar have all been charmed by the area in recent months.

The £100,000 Indian holiday has proved the perfect chance for Madonna to hone her horseriding skills.

The singer has had riding lessons with William Fox-Pitt, who won silver with the Great Britain team at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and has been a regular visitor to their 1,200-acre Ashcombe House estate in Wiltshire.

He helped the singer build up her confidence again after she had a fall while riding on her 47th birthday in 2005, in which she suffered three cracked ribs, a broken collarbone and a fractured hand.