Having seen the horrifying reports of the flooding in Mumbai via facebook from my friends who live there, I wanted to honour the beautiful people I met on my trip earlier this year by sharing photos of some of those I met in Dharavi.
Dharavi, is the 3rd largest slum in the world made famous by the film ‘Slum dog millionaire’. As you can see slum surrounds the railway station and has as you would expect the shacks are very precarious. There is no street planning and very few modern facilities. Running water is only available at certain times of the day and only in specific areas. Electricity is only a recent addition and is unpredictable.
The slum came about when people from outside Mumbai moved to the city for a better life. These new inhabitants lived with other people from their area of India and brought their crafts with them. Now there are specific sectors for pottery, curing and making leather goods and recycling.
Many of amazing inhabitants of the slum have carved a living from recycling other peoples’ trash and selling it back to the companies who produced it so they can refill, remold or melt down. Tins and containers are cleaned. Plastics separated into type and cardboard boxes de-stapled and turned inside out.
As I hope you can see from my photos the inhabitants for Dharavi have dignity and pride in their work and life in the slum. I hope they have all made it through the flooding but I fear their homes were not safe places to be.
My friend Nick, took me around Dharavi. He grew up there and now runs guided tours around the slum and Mumbai for an NGO who fund a place for kids to come and study: http://www.mysticalmumbai.com. Nick is 22 and has a degree in container ship navigation. He said you will rarely see kids in his area playing, with a thirst for knowledge and a better life they are always studying.
