Dharavi – Slum or Thriving Economy?

When you speak of slums to anyone in Mumbai, the first thing that comes to mind is Dharavi. This is hardly surprising considering that it has often been dubbed the ‘largest slum in Asia’ with some over-enthusiastic persons even going so far as to call it the ‘largest slum in the world’. Neither of these epithets remains accurate today.

The slum in Mexico City, Neza-Chalco-Itza barrio, has a population that outnumbers Dharavi’s four to one. In Asia too Karachi’s Orangi Township has outstripped Dharavi in terms of population. In Mumbai itself even, there are at least two other slums that rival Dharavi in size and squalor.

Although a slum is typically characterized as a poverty-stricken area without proper housing facilities, sanitation and infra-structure, the first of these qualities is no longer completely applicable to modern day Dharavi. The people here are poor but they are not beggars or vagrants. In fact, it has recently been suggested that Dharavi has the highest concentration of small-scale industries in Mumbai.