Berkley Center

In the days leading up to our visit to Mumbai and more specifically, Dharavi, one of the largest slums in all of Asia, I was not entirely sure what to expect. Like many people who strive to become more globally aware yet are limited in their knowledge of and/or access to certain cultures, peoples, and nations, I first heard about Dharavi from the 2008 internationally recognized and acclaimed film Slumdog Millionaire. Although Dharavi was largely depicted in a single scene, the movie helped mold my initial impressions and understandings of what Dharavi was and what role it played in Mumbai as well as in India as a whole.

From Slumdog Millionaire, I got the impression that Dharavi and its residents stain the image that India’s government strives to uphold: that India is making great strides in terms of its economic, social, and political development and is quickly becoming a economic powerhouse and a force to be reckoned with in Asia. The movie showed the Dharavi residents living in squalid, cramped, and unhygienic houses made out of tin and blue plastic tarp to keep the monsoon rains at bay. Mounds and mounds of trash were piled several feet deep. Combined with the open sewers, a severe shortage of potable water, and lack of awareness about safe hygiene practices, the stench of Dharavi must be unbearable. In terms of day-to-day tasks, the adults in Dharavi managed the household while the young children fooled around with one another and did not attend school.

I thus went into the Dharavi tour with some negative preconceptions about what I would see. However, as with all of my experiences in India this semester, I tried to push my prior judgments about Dharavi to the back of my mind and instead approach Dharavi with an open mind.

After visiting Dharavi, I realized that the slum had been misrepresented in Slumdog Millionaire by design. The movie really only shed light on one small aspect of Dharavi and looked at it from the perspective of a developed Western nation, something that was bound to happen as the film had an English director. As I walked through the slum, I realized that Dharavi was more economically developed than the movie made it appear. Various storefronts, stalls, and vendors lined the streets. Almost every single sector and/or industry that I could think of was represented in some shape or form on the streets of Dharavi. In that sense, I felt that "slum" was a very inaccurate and derogatory term to describe Dharavi. Instead, Dharavi could be more accurately described as a small city or district that exists within the confines of the larger Mumbai metropolis. Like the Georgetown neighborhood is to the larger city of Washington, DC, Dharavi is full of life and thrives as a unique and individual entity. At the same time, Dharavi exists as an integral part of Mumbai, and neither could be separated from the other to form a complete understanding of the two respectively.

From visiting and interacting with the cloth and ceramic makers, I learned that Dharavi plays one of the most important roles in many production chains in India. Dharavi is where a large number of these production chains begin, and many Indian industries would crumble or cease to exist without Dharavi. The cloth makers and cloth dyers informed us that their handiwork is sent to larger facilities nationwide and used to make products that are sold to people across the Indian subcontinent and around the world. In my eyes, Dharavi is a source of cheap, skilled labor that indirectly services all of India. Although Dharavi and other Indian slums’ economic outputs are not noted in official government statistics, I am sure that Dharavi puts millions of dollars into the Indian economy and contributes significantly to its annual economic growth.

My main takeaway from the Dharavi tour was that Dharavi and other slums might operate in the shadows—and the Indian government might not want to officially recognize its significance—but this does not detract from the truth of the matter: Dharavi plays a crucial role in modern India. However, one question I am still grappling with is this: if Dharavi and other slums do in fact contribute millions to the Indian economy, how much are they and should they be receiving in return?