This is now Gem and i did no such thing!
We are on the train, it is the 3rd of October gone 4pm and we are heading back from our one night stay at Khem Villas and back to Jaipur...but that will get blogged about later.
So, a couple of days ago we were on our first proper day in Mumbai and we knew it was going to be a long one. We were up and out by 8am in order to get a taxi to Mahim train station in order to meet the tour. As much as we don't really like doing organised tours with other tourists etc as i think they are a bit cheesy and would rather do it ourself, the two we were taking today really needed a guide. We started off with a tour of Dharavi, the largest slum in Mumbai. This tour was something I personally ummed and arhhed about for ages and didn't actually confirm the booking with them until yesterday as I just couldn't make my mind up whether I actually wanted to go on it or not. The thought of being in a large group of tourists and being guided around an area of severe poverty with people begging and looking like they haven't eaten in days and seeing young children all dirty, unwashed and hungry was selfishly not going to a good holiday make!! However, I personally wanted to learn about it as I knew nothing and If I was going to be in the country for a few weeks, probably for the only time in my life I thought that I would rather be educated about the place and see it with my own eyes, that would be the only way I would truly understand the place. The dealbreaker for me was that the company we booked with was a not for profit charity and all proceeds go back into the community so that was it, we were booked on. The other good thing about the tour is that we were unable to take pictures, although I would have loved to have taken some snaps I fully appreciated why we weren't allowed and it made us more at ease with it. So we met our guide Jitesh and headed off.
Dharavi has more than 1million people living in 1.7km of space which is 20 times more dense than Mumbai. It is the oldest slum dating back to 1840's and basically a slum is roughy. Defined as any dwelling that is illegally built on government owned land. The government are trying to legitimise the buildings and officially recognised any buildings that existed before 2000s legal dwellings, anything after 2000 is considered illegal and can be demolished. Due to the large commercial area opposite the slum the land has increased in price considerably. There are over 10000 industries with 600 million us dollars generated post tax!!! The majority of workers are migrant workers getting paid about 150/180 rupees per 10-12 hr day, that is £1.50 ish to you and me. Rent on a slum property (less than 10sq meters) is 2000 rupees, about £20 so each worker would need to work at least three weeks to pay for their slum dwellings with the remaining £5 ish per month to live on and save for family. There is a large recycling plant where 1kg of plastic reaches 48 rupees rather then the 20 rupees it would fetch outside the slum. Most of the workers are men and they work for 10 months away from their familes to save some money and then return to their village life with some money for their wife and children and then return to the slums again for another ten months of work. We walked (very quickly may i add) through an aluminium factory where they were melting aluminium into new sheets. It was scorching, there were sparks everywhere, the floor was littered with sharp bits of molten metal, the air was toxic, the floor and surrounds were unkept with wires everywhere and yet these men smiled at us as we walked through, every part of their body unprotected from the heat, sparks, sharp bits flying everywhere, scolding metal, fire and toxic fumes. I asked why they do not wear protective gear and it was explained to me that they choose not to as it interferes with their work, making them hot etc and slowing down the pace at which they can do things. The working conditions in the slum are unbelievable, god help anyone at work when i get back moan about a heater not working properly or that they have to wear PPE or....for a select few....the moans of having to even work and then a bonus and pay rise not being adequate!!! I am not sure if after seeing the slum I can keep my mouth closed re this one!
The slum has restaurants, schools, colleges and doctors and a hospital. Of course the medical care and schooling needs paying for too...of course it does!!
When someone in the slum is sent a letter it goes to the area of the slum in which they live and the only way it gets to them is by the postman asking around. The community is so tight, everyone knows everyone else and religion doesn't play a part here, the muslims and hindu's live in harmony here unlike other areas of India. They used to be separate in the slum until 1998 but now the children even go to school together and some people decide to marry another of a different religion.
The tour guide explained that the slum used to be led by a mafia but it is now the legal mafia that take charge of it (the police in his words). About 45% of the police force come from the slums themselves.
90% of the children in the slum go to school. There are charities ( the one we went on the tour with funds educational projects, soccer, photography and cricket) which fund English language support.
Personally i have left blogging about the slum for a bit so as to reflect on the experience. I thought I would be saying that it is disgusting, vile, upsetting and ultimately an area of vast poverty like I have never before see. It is all of these things and more. The children looked so clean and lovely in their crisp school uniforms, there was none of this ties half done or shirts out. The children looked proud to be in their uniform and they looked so cute walking along in little huddles or holding onto their parents hand to be dropped off at school clutching their reading bags. The little girls had ribbons in their hair and school shoes, no trainers. The children laughed and pointed as we walked past, they wanted to high five and fist bump and practice their english on us. They smiled from ear to ear and giggled like every other child, they didn't seem unhappy and not one of them begged or asked us for anything other than a high five. Two little girls offered me and Phill some of their crisps, thats when somewhere like this hits you....having hardly anything and yet offering what little you do have. The people were so friendly. The place was very dirty, the tiny alleyways lined with muck, rubbish, water, cracked pavements, make shift walkways out of broken bits of brick or slab and the odd bit of sewage....and the smell near the communal toilets and main rubbish area....the canal...was disgusting. It was strange seeing most people turned out in clean pressed clothes, shaven, tidy and with a sense of pride. I don't quite know how to put it but I just didn't expect that. This place is a shock to the system but at the same time it feels safe, the community feels powerful in the sense that they all strive together, share, get by and support one another. The people don't seem helpless or alone in their daily battle, I am not saying that these living conditions are fine, they are by no means fine and more needs to be done to help these people but from the conversations we have had regarding the governments incentives to get the people out of the slum and into high rise flats it seems as though the majority just move back as they miss the community aspect and the fact that they get water and electricity for a longer period of time during the day.
I cant sum this place up, at the end of the day the place is disgusting, the living and working conditions are simply vile and it is wrong that people have to live and work in such a way. I asked why all of the workers don't just go on strike, get together and demand better conditions but like the tour guide said "there are another million people waiting in line to work in the slums" simply because it is a job, a poorly paid job but a job nonetheless and the Indian people, unlike some/quite a lot of the British population are not work shy, they do not expect handouts or to live off the state, my perception is that there is self pride here for working...something some people in the UK could learn from.
I am glad we went on the tour as at least, if nothing else we are now that little more educated and of course, without a doubt it makes you more grateful for what you have and the systems we have in the UK.
Location:Dharavi, Mumbai
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