After spending a few nights at five-star accommodations in the heart of Mumbai -Nairman Point- our journey to India exposed our bushy-tailed and bright-eyed group to one of the biggest slums in India: Dharavi.
Our RBS group had already been exposed to poverty in India before we reached Dharavi. We had seen make-shift homes around the street corners, under bridges, on sidewalks. Poverty is every where. In both Delhi and Mumbai, our RBS group was approached by peddlers trying to make a rupee. Some of them got lucky and were handed 500 rupee notes. Others were turned away. Being Indian and having visited India a number of times before this trip, I felt comfortable with the poverty in India. It took the eyes of my classmates to show me that this was not really okay. I was not too excited to visit Dharavi. Family members in India were surprised to hear that we were going to the slums, and warned me to take care.
Located in the suburbs of Mumbai, near Sion, Bandra, Kurla, and Kalina, Dharavi is a small scale industry and unlike the beggars on the streets of Mumbai and Delhi, you can sense work-ethic. Our group arrived at the slum around 9 AM. While plenty of stores in Delhi and Mumbai would be closed at this hour, Dharavi was bustling with activity. The slum was divided up into industrial areas: plastics, metal work, leather work, pottery work, and even some popular snacks are made there.
Garbage from all over the world is brought to Dharavi and it is sorted by the workers here. They recycle and make plastic pellets that are shipped to China for manufacturing. Items used in worship by Hindus, wooden temples and clay pots are made here by Muslim workers. Leather goods and clothing for export are stitched in medium sized rooms, furnished with chairs and tables. It's a slum and people are paid way below minimum wage, but they work. There are no salaries, only per hour wages. The women stay at home to cook and take care of the kids, while the men put in long hours in the shops. Women work too, but their jobs are less taxing- they are in charge of pottery and preparing snacks that are sold throughout India.
Our group was concerned about the children and their well-being. We were happy to learn that they go to school. There is a school within Dharavi. The school is really one classroom, and there were computers lining the wall of the class. Students aged five to about sixteen were present. When our class visited, they were watching a popular Bollywood film, "The 3 Idiots". Funny enough, that film is about three engineering students and teaches the importance of education.
When the children are not in school they can be seen playing outdoors. Unfortunately, Dharavi has very few playgrounds. Because of this, kids can be seen hanging out in the alley ways or running around clearings. The clearing happened to be near public bathrooms with no running water, and sewage. Just a few yards away, workers were burning metals and carcinogens into the air.
Someone asked me how I felt after seeing the slum, if I hated it or if I loved it. My response was neither. I was saddened by their reality. About 1 million people live there. According to Reality Tours and Travel Pvt. Ltd, "[People of Dharavi] don’t all live there illegally. Dharavi is a legal slum as it was built before 1995 and gets public services like toilets and electricity." Because there is no running water, the residents fill up barrels each day for washing, laundering, and showering. We saw these barrels of stagnant water, sitting uncovered around the residential areas. Just a few alleys away, I saw a child going to the bathroom on the side of the alley. Hello, public health hazard.
While Dharavi is not why many people go to India, if you have a chance to see it, definitely go. Don't go to feel bad for the people who live there or to see if you can tolerate the smell. Go there to learn about the many problems India is facing, condensed into this one acre plot of land. And go there to see how every morning, the people of Dharavi wake up and do what they know to do and earn a living. If anyone is interested in taking a tour of Dharavi, please visit Reality Tours and Travel.
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I was actually extremely impressed with the people at Dharavi. They live in proverty but choose not to steal or cheat and work on recycling, making food, working with parts that were trashed. The people there were all extremely hard working, when we were in the slums no one came and begged, or bothered us for money but people continued on with there work. It was an unbelievable site to see, I was taken by there ambition to do better for themselves. It is hard life but they try to make the best of it. I would definitely recommend to go see it.
ReplyDeletei thought it was so inspiring to walk through those cramped corridors, and witness all the business activities going on behind those shoddy doors. i was worried about going, in terms of crime and possibility of hateful stares and such. though, i was wrong, people were very welcoming especially the little ones. realizing the resilience and courage of the people was very inspiring. i have decided to write about the Dharavi slums as a topic for my world politics class, i figured a great topic would be how nation state actors and the actions we make, allow places like this to exists in the world. what we can do, to help or prevent it. any thoughts about this guys? anyway see you guys saturday. also, i wont have the videos by satruday so sorry. ill need everyones addresses to send them to you.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=6899464&story_id=E1_TDPTTNJP
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