Dharavi

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Dharavi (labeled "Mu"), compared to other large slums in the world. Map according to Mike Davis

Dharavi children.

Inside Dharavi Slum

One of the Entrances to Dharavi

Pottery on sale in Dharavi

A lot of the city's recycling is done manually in Dharavi

A 2007 photograph of Dharavi, titled "UNICEF's failed effort"; the garbage is spread everywhere besides the UNICEF rubbish bin.

Kamal Haasan at the Dharavi slum, shooting for Mani Ratnam's Nayagan (1987).

Dharavi (Portuguese spelling Daravi^[1] British Anglicised spelling Darravy, Dorrovy) is a slum and administrative ward, over parts of Sion, Bandra, Kurla and Kalina suburbs of Mumbai, India. Sandwiched between Mahim in the west and Sion in the east, ^[2] and spread over an area of 175 hectares, or 0.67 square miles. In 1986, the population was estimated at 530,225^[3], but modern Dharavi has a population of between 600,000 ^[4] and over 1 million people^[5], and with over 1,000,000 residents per square mile, it may be the mostly densely populated neighbourhood in the world.^[6] While still widely regarded as the largest slum in Asia,^[7][8] Dharavi was once it's undisputed largest slum^[9][10] The number of people living in slums in India has more than doubled in the past two decades and now exceeds the entire population of Britain, the Indian Government has announced.^[11]

In expensive Mumbai, Dharavi provides a cheap, but illegal, alternative where rents were as low as 4 US dollars per month in 2006.^[6] Dharavi exports goods around the world.^[12] The total turnover is estimated to be between 500 million US dollars^[13] and over 650 million US dollars per year.^[6]

[edit] Geography

Dharavi is located between Mumbai's two main suburban railway lines, the Western and Central Railways. To its west are Mahim and Bandra, and to the north lies the Mithi River, which empties into the Arabian Sea through the Mahim Creek. To its south and east are Sion and Matunga. Both its location and poor drainage systems make Dharavi particularly vulnerable to floods during the wet season.

[edit] History

In the 18th century, Dharavi was an island.^[14] In February 1739, Chimnaji Appa attacked Bassein. Before that, he took possession of Dharavi.

The area of present-day Dharavi was predominantly mangrove swamp prior to the late 19th century, inhabited by Koli fishermen.^[15] However, the fishing industry disappeared when the swamp areas filled in. A dam at Sion, adjacent to Dharavi, hastened the process of joining separate islands into one long, tapered mass. Thus began the transformation of the island city of Bombay. In the process, the creek dried up, and Dharavi's fishing town was deprived of its traditional sustenance, but the newly drained marshes provided space for new communities to move in. Migrants from Gujarat established a potters' colony, and Muslim tanners from Tamil Nadu migrated to Dharavi and set up the leather tanning industry. Other artisans, like the embroidery workers from Uttar Pradesh, started the ready-made garments trade.^[15]

Bombay's first Tamil school and Dharavi's first school was constructed in 1924.^[16]

[edit] Economy

In addition to the traditional pottery and textile industries in Dharavi,^[15] there is an increasingly large recycling industry, processing recyclable waste from other parts of Mumbai. Financial services is significant; the district has an estimated 15,000 single-room factories.^[17]

An urban redevelopment plan is proposed for the Dharavi area, managed by American-trained architect Mukesh Mehta.^[15] The plan ^[18] involves the construction of 30,000,000 square feet (2,800,000 m²) of housing, schools, parks and roads to serve the existing 57,000 families residing in the area, along with 40,000,000 square feet (3,700,000 m²) of residential and commercial space for sale.^[19] There has been significant local opposition to the plans, largely because existing residents are due to receive only 225 square feet (20.9 m²) of land each.^[15][19] Furthermore, only those families who lived in the area before the year 2000 are slated for resettlement. Concerns have also been raised by residents who fear that some of their small businesses in the "informal" sector may not be relocated under the redevelopment plan. ^[20] The government has said that it will only legalize and relocate industries that are not "polluting."

[edit] Sanitation issues

Dharavi has severe problems with public health, due to the scarcity of toilet facilities, compounded by the flooding during the monsoon season. As of November 2006 there was only one toilet per 1,440 residents in Dharavi.^[21] Mahim Creek, a local river, is widely used by local residents for urination and defecation, leading to the spread of contagious disease.^[15] The area also suffers from problems with inadequate water supply.^[22]

[edit] Media depiction

• Dharavi has been depicted in a number of Hindi films produced by the Mumbai film industry. These include Salim-Javed films such as Deewaar (1975), Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay! (1988) where several child actors were from the Dharavi slum, Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Parinda (1989), Sudhir Mishra's Dharavi (1991), Ram Gopal Varma's "Indian Gangster Trilogy" (1998-2005) and Sarkar series (2005-2008), Vikram Bhatt's Footpath (2003), Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday (2004) and No Smoking (2007), Madhur Bhandarkar's Traffic Signal (2007), Rajeev Khandelwal's Aamir (2008), and various other films based on the Mumbai underworld.

• Dharavi has also been depicted in films from other Indian film industries, particularly the Tamil film industry. Several films by Mani Ratnam based on the experiences of Tamil immigrants to Mumbai have depicted the Dharavi slum, including Nayagan (1987) and Bombay (1995).

• Dharavi features prominently in Danny Boyle's 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, where several of the child actors in the film are from the Dharavi slum.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranjit_Naik
• Sharma, Kalpana; "Rediscovering Dharavi: Story From Asia's Largest Slum" (2000) —Penguin Books ISBN 0-14-100023-6
• "Life in a Slum" - BBC News
• Location of Dharavi - Google Maps
• Mark Jacobson (May 2007 issue). "Dharavi Mumbai's Shadow City". National Geographic. http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0705/feature3/. Retrieved on 2007-04-30. 
• "Urban poverty in India: A flourishing slum" and "Recycling: A soul-searching business", The Economist, 19 December2007
• "Women Have Done It Again: A featured article in CrossOver India Magazine"
• Everyone Wants a Slice of the Dharavi Pie - Live Mint
• dharavi.org: A participatory site on Dharavi
• Prakash M Apte; "Dharavi:India's Model Slum" www.planetizen.com/node/35269

Coordinates: 19°02′38.4″N 72°51′23.0″E / 19.044°N 72.856389°E / 19.044; 72.856389

Lot's of Young Entrepreneurs in and around Bombay are now aggressively involved with cause of Dharavi Slums, and creating awarness on a global scale as the Goverment of India has once again started ignoring this extremly important issue.

http://dharavislums.ning.com/