[UPDATED VERSION WITH PHOTOS] Last Sunday, I did a tour Dharavi, Asia’s largest slump. The tour was organized by Reality Tours and Travel, a unique tour and travel agency that specializes in guided tours of Dharavi.
Dharavi main road
Before that, let me provide a brief introduction of Reality Tours and Travel. Set up by an Englishman Chris Way and an Indian Krishna Poojari, the idea for a slum tour in Mumbai came from the famous Brazil tours.
They insist that the tour is not there to showcase Dharavi’s poverty, instead they want to showcase the growth that industry and production has brought to Dharavi. Interestingly, eighty per cent of the profits from the tours goes straight back into a charity, which runs nursery schools for under-privileged children in slums.
Dharavi, lies on prime property right in the middle of Mumbai and sandwiched in between two of Mumbai’s main railway stations, it is a glaring reminder that growth has yet to reach all corners of India.
Over one million people live in the Dharavi slum, which covers about 1.75 square kilometres of swampy, muddy land. Its residents come from all over India, and many have lived there for a generation or more, in cramped housing with little or no sanitation.
However, according to the tour guide Dev, the slum is something of a success story, with an estimated turnover of $665 million per year and unusually 85% of its inhabitants are employed. Interestingly, some of the employees are from outside the area of Dharavi.
Back to the tour, it’s a real challenge to me, emotionally and physically. Arriving in Dharavi after walking across the train station Mahim Junction on the local Western Railway line was an eye opener as we stepped off the garbage.
"What a huge world," I whispered to myself.
Then, we were led to 13th Compound, which is a recycling area.
Street in 13th Compound
This is a place where recycled plastic was melted down and turned into tiny pellets for various usage.
Gathering recyclable waste
Sorting out plastic
We manage to sneak into one of the factory and climbed up to the roof top to view the slump area.
View of Dharavi
This is when Dev started to explain the construction of high-rise building, in which upon completion, some of the selected residents will shift in. However, the move wasn’t welcomed by the locals as even though they’re being given a unit for zero cost, maintenance fee is not affordable with average wage of 50-100 rupee per day (RM4-RM8).
Recycling oil cans
Recycling oil drums
We were told that with only 1% of the slum-dweller have toilet in their houses, open communal toilets and sewers are common, which is why diseases like cholera, typhoid and malaria spreads easily too.
Narrow alley
As we moved away from the residential area, we came to a nursery school in a Muslim-populated area. It was funded by NGO and surprisingly, students are being taught in English.
Primary school
Wandering around the back alleys of the slum we passed through bakery, leather tanneries, pappadum and potteries making areas.
Bakery
Leather tannery
Kumbharwada (Potteries making area)
Kumbharwada (Potteries making area)
For one thing, almost no one asked for money, or even tried to sell me anything. That was a big change from Colaba, the main tourist district, where it is difficult to walk more than a few steps without being hounded by beggars, usually young woman with an infant on her hip or a peddler hawking laminated maps.
Kids with their pet
Perhaps people in Dharavi were simply too busy. Besides the food stalls and handcarts, there were video parlors showing Bollywood hits, several bars and, on one street, an electronic store plastered with Sony decals.
We finished the tour on the side of a busy four-lane road, where "Horn OK Please" once again playing by my ear. I wondered whether the critics weren’t simply embarrassed by the slum’s glaring poverty, an image at odds with the country’s efforts to re-brand itself as a big software park together with fame bollywood stars.
In any case, it seemed to me that the purpose of the tour was not to generate pity, but understanding of a place where people are working hard, struggling to make a living and doing it in an honest way. To further appreciate life? Definitely, very much.
However, that’s not to say that it made me an expert, I was only there a few hours, afterall.
Were the people I saw in Dharavi the victims of globalization, or its beneficiaries? I still don’t know. But at least the question had been raised in my mind.
Meanwhile, I’ll post some pictures once I receive them from the organizer since no photo shooting is allowed during the tour.
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don’t know what to say as it is kinda hard to relate to a person who lives in a place where only 1% has toilets. but i guess it shows that ppl survive and problems need to be taken into context with a larger view of things. like zewt says sometimes rejuggling priorities may lead to a ‘better’ life depending on your perspective.
:D
I remember when I went to Manila for the first time in 1990 and I had to visit the slum area. I almost packed my bags to head home after the visit. The stink from the garbage was overpowering and I wondered how people could live there. And you photos show a situation that is even worse than what I saw!
I guess this is a reality wake-up call for all of us who have taken our relative comfort for granted. When I was with a company whose office was near the Pekeliling flats, a colleague and I would just run up those flats to wake ourselves up when we felt we were getting complacent.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. More photos would be good. A picture says a thousand words.
The Muslim nursery children being taught English? That’s a revealing point. And our so-called nationalistic politicians advocate policies that discourage our citizens from learning the language! One day the children from Dharavi will overtake us. It’s not the language per se. It’s the openness that allows and encourages learning. And no beggers and hawkers there? Perhaps our government should send some delegations to Dharavi rather than to places where they can see belle dancing?