Asia’s Largest Slum - Dharavi

Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi lies on major property in the middle of India’s financial capital, Mumbai. It is also an administrative division, over parts of Bandra, Kurla, Sion and Kalina. It is slotted between Mumbai’s two main suburban railway lines, the western and the central Railways. Sion is in the east and Mahim and Bandra are in the West and in the north lay the Mithi River. The Slum is spread over an area of 550 acre. The population estimated in the year 1986 was 530,225 and according to the recent census the population has raised up to 600,000. It is stated as the World’s one of the largest slum. More than 14 million people are residing in this slum. Mumbai is a city where house rents touch the sky line; Dharavi provides an affordable and cheap option to those who move in Mumbai city in order to earn their livings. Rents here are very low; it starts from 185 rupees per month. The location and poor drainage system both makes it susceptible to floods during the rainy season.  Today’s Dharavi bears no resemblance to the fishing village as it was before. It is equal to city, an unending stretch of narrow dirty lanes, overcrowded huts and open drains. People living in these slum areas live their life with all comfort measures such as having a cooking gas stove, continuous supply of electricity, small colour television along with a cable line and other essential materials used to live a good life. Dharavi in Mumbai has a large number of flourishing small-scale industries that produce export quality of leather goods, pottery, plastic and embroidered garments. Most of these goods are made in small manufacturing units spread across the slum and are sold in domestic as well as international markets. Dharavi exports goods around the world; the total turnover is estimated over US$650 million each year. Dharavi slum has been used by filmmakers to bring out the gloomy reality of Mumbai and has been the central plot of many Bollywood blockbusters. Even some Hollywood films have been shot in the slums of Dharavi named Slumdog millionaire. Within a short span of time the face of this Dharavi is going to change as the State government has planned to redevelop this slum and transform it into modern city, complete with shopping complexes, proper housing facilities, hospitals and educational institutions. This project has estimated the cost of redevelopment up to US$2.1 billion. The slum that is spread over 550 acres will be divided into 5 sectors. MHADA and the private developers will be completing this project. They will construct seven-storey buildings for those who are affected. Dwellers of the slum will be given a flat of 300 sq.ft. But the people residing at Dharavi are not happy with this plan; they say that they want a flat along with compensation in cash. They want flat bigger than their houses and are demanding a corpus fund of Rs.10 lakh should be created for the affected people.Nobody knows what will be the outcome of this. So let us wait and watch the next face of Dharavi in coming years.