Day two on the tour provided an incomparable experience. We made a two-hour visit to Dharavi, Mumbai's largest slum and one of the locations where the movie, "Slumdog Millionaire" was made. Let's take that item first. People here were insulted by the film because they felt it did not portray Dharavi accurately. It was seen as a Hollywood confection that put them in a bad light.
Our visit was designed in part to correct that impression and to provide more factual information about the area. We heard from several people that Dharavi should not be considered a slum, certainly not the worst slum, because it is an entrepreneurial hive focused on four industries: recycling, leather, pottery, and textiles. People are working hard, they said, and making important contributions to Mumbai's economy, both in the industries operated within and in services provided (domestic work, for example) outside. In keeping with this we were asked not to take pictures and not to make faces if we came upon strong unpleasant smells or sights. The tour was informative and respectful. We had lots of chances to ask questions as we walked the unpaved and very uneven narrow alleys and dodged vehicles and goats in the bigger streets.
Our guides were two young men who are Dharavi residents and graduate students in physics and commerce. They are part of an all-male group of about 15 who are working to change perceptions about the area. I asked if there were young women in this group. No, because they really cannot socialize with young women as friends, even university students. And besides the young women shouldn't be doing this kind of work per traditional customs, one said.
We divided into two groups of 4-5 each with a guide and visited all four industries. What we saw were mostly illiterate young men who have come to Mumbai from other parts of Maharashtra as well as Gujarat and Bihar, in search of a better life. They can earn between $3 and $10/day. Some are quite skilled and others are limited to sorting plastic by color and quality. Some send remittances back to their village families and most live together in dorm facilities with a communal toilet. Each shop gets two barrels of water a day which is used in part for what we might call sponge baths.
The entrepreneurs behind the predominant industries are not Dharavi residents. They are savvy business owners who have a source of inexpensive labor and an inexhaustible market for their goods and services. The workers work in mostly dark spaces with no safe work provisions or protections against environmental hazards. They are understandably clothed in shorts and undershirts, if any shirt. Most sit barefoot on the floor to work--cutting pieces of Samsonite luggage, beating hides, burning paint off old paint cans, reconstructing cardboard boxes, sorting plastic, running very noisy machines that chop the plastic, or melting aluminum into heavy bricks for reuse. There are many unspecified chemicals in use for cleaning plastic, processing leather, etc. most textile workers sat in dark spaces running sewing machines for clothing construction. Two guys who seemed to have it pretty good worked in a lighted space with a fan, running a Chinese-made computerized embroidery program on a machine as wide as the room. With the exception of one small leather goods shop most of these industries are wholesale.
Between one and two million people live here. There are biological families (some multiple generations) and families of choice (workers from rural areas looking for a better life). The area is quite large, has two public hospitals and many dispensaries and dental clinics. Redevelopment efforts have led to the construction of high rise, Cabrini-Green kinds of buildings, which prohibit families from operating a business in a store front below or in front of their living quarters.
For all its lacks, Dharavi is also a community with a political structure and elected representatives. Basic services, such as dry cleaners and clothes pressers, bank transfer services, movie theaters, food and clothing sellers, school children in uniform (mostly male) are all there. It sits next to a suburban train line and a main road with buses. Some residents serve as domestic servants or in other service jobs throughout the metropolitan area.
I was haunted during our visit by the stories of Thrity Umrigar (The Space Between Us) and Katherine Boo (Behind the Beautiful Forevers) about life in a Mumbai slum in the larger context of a vibrant city with an increasing disparity in wealth. It was a five-star experience I will be processing for a long time, probably coming to contradictory conclusions, wishing I could return and hear more and see more and ask more questions. But for now we are headed to a hill station known for over 300 species of birds, forest, and auyervedic spa treatments.
Our visit was designed in part to correct that impression and to provide more factual information about the area. We heard from several people that Dharavi should not be considered a slum, certainly not the worst slum, because it is an entrepreneurial hive focused on four industries: recycling, leather, pottery, and textiles. People are working hard, they said, and making important contributions to Mumbai's economy, both in the industries operated within and in services provided (domestic work, for example) outside. In keeping with this we were asked not to take pictures and not to make faces if we came upon strong unpleasant smells or sights. The tour was informative and respectful. We had lots of chances to ask questions as we walked the unpaved and very uneven narrow alleys and dodged vehicles and goats in the bigger streets.
Our guides were two young men who are Dharavi residents and graduate students in physics and commerce. They are part of an all-male group of about 15 who are working to change perceptions about the area. I asked if there were young women in this group. No, because they really cannot socialize with young women as friends, even university students. And besides the young women shouldn't be doing this kind of work per traditional customs, one said.
We divided into two groups of 4-5 each with a guide and visited all four industries. What we saw were mostly illiterate young men who have come to Mumbai from other parts of Maharashtra as well as Gujarat and Bihar, in search of a better life. They can earn between $3 and $10/day. Some are quite skilled and others are limited to sorting plastic by color and quality. Some send remittances back to their village families and most live together in dorm facilities with a communal toilet. Each shop gets two barrels of water a day which is used in part for what we might call sponge baths.
The entrepreneurs behind the predominant industries are not Dharavi residents. They are savvy business owners who have a source of inexpensive labor and an inexhaustible market for their goods and services. The workers work in mostly dark spaces with no safe work provisions or protections against environmental hazards. They are understandably clothed in shorts and undershirts, if any shirt. Most sit barefoot on the floor to work--cutting pieces of Samsonite luggage, beating hides, burning paint off old paint cans, reconstructing cardboard boxes, sorting plastic, running very noisy machines that chop the plastic, or melting aluminum into heavy bricks for reuse. There are many unspecified chemicals in use for cleaning plastic, processing leather, etc. most textile workers sat in dark spaces running sewing machines for clothing construction. Two guys who seemed to have it pretty good worked in a lighted space with a fan, running a Chinese-made computerized embroidery program on a machine as wide as the room. With the exception of one small leather goods shop most of these industries are wholesale.
Between one and two million people live here. There are biological families (some multiple generations) and families of choice (workers from rural areas looking for a better life). The area is quite large, has two public hospitals and many dispensaries and dental clinics. Redevelopment efforts have led to the construction of high rise, Cabrini-Green kinds of buildings, which prohibit families from operating a business in a store front below or in front of their living quarters.
For all its lacks, Dharavi is also a community with a political structure and elected representatives. Basic services, such as dry cleaners and clothes pressers, bank transfer services, movie theaters, food and clothing sellers, school children in uniform (mostly male) are all there. It sits next to a suburban train line and a main road with buses. Some residents serve as domestic servants or in other service jobs throughout the metropolitan area.
I was haunted during our visit by the stories of Thrity Umrigar (The Space Between Us) and Katherine Boo (Behind the Beautiful Forevers) about life in a Mumbai slum in the larger context of a vibrant city with an increasing disparity in wealth. It was a five-star experience I will be processing for a long time, probably coming to contradictory conclusions, wishing I could return and hear more and see more and ask more questions. But for now we are headed to a hill station known for over 300 species of birds, forest, and auyervedic spa treatments.
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