Dharavi

Dharavi

Developing Asia’s Biggest Slum

Introduction: Describing Dharavi.

The United Nations Human Settlement Program defined a “slum” as an area which has one or more of the following characteristics: inadequate access to safe water, inadequate ac-cess to sanitation, poor structural quality of housing, overcrowding and insecure residential sta-tus. Mumbai has the largest absolute number of slum dwellers in the world with 5.82 million of people, 49% of its residents living in its 2,000 slums. The 2.23 square kilometers (551 acres) of Dharavi are home to 700,000 people, making it one of the most densely populated settlements in the world.

The earliest inhabitants of Dharavi were the Koli fishermen who inhabited the swampy area near the Mahim River. Starting in the 1800s, the city of Mumbai began reclaiming land to accommodate its increasing population. The newly reclaimed land in Dharavi attracted many communities to settle informally, even though the government did not consider the land fit for habitation. Migrants from all parts of India, including the Kumbhars (potters) from the western state of Gujarat, banyas (clothing embroiderers) from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and leather tanners from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, established colonies in Dharavi that served as both business and residential enclaves. As the Mahim creek dried up and the swamp filled in, the Kolis were deprived of their fishing grounds. Many turned to alternative sources of income such as brewing and bootlegging liquor, which invited illegal activities such as smuggling, prostitution and gambling into the area.

Dharavi had two types of settlements - a chawl settlement and the slum settlement. Chawls were a large cluster of multi-storied, single-room homes with a common corridor and a communal toilet. These were built by the municipal government in the early 1900s to house the city’s textile mill workers. A slum settlement, on the other hand,...