The reality of life in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum

The popularity of Danny Boyle’s recent film, Slumdog Millionaire has led to a surge of media interest in the Mumbai slum of Dharavi which is partially depicted in the film.

An important part of many people’s motivation for going to see the film will have been the depiction of severe poverty and an attempt, however implausibly realised in the story, to escape it. This popular concern, which took the studios by surprise, has assumed fresh urgency.

A slum clearance program by the state government, tied to potential corporate development, is set to worsen the plight of many workers and residents in Dharavi, confronting them with homelessness and the loss of their livelihoods. A more considered and serious approach to the phenomenon of slums like Dharavi is needed than has appeared in much of the world’s press. 

Dharavi, which rivals Orangi Township in Karachi, Pakistan, for the title of Asia’s largest slum, is an administrative ward, stretching over parts of Sion, East Bandra, Kurla and Kalina suburbs of Mumbai. Spread over an area of around 200 hectares, according to official figures it has approximately 86,000 slum structures and an estimated population of up to one million, making it one of the most densely populated areas of the world.

In Mumbai there are other slums which are beginning to rival Dharavi in size and squalor. In a city of 15 million people, almost 60 percent live in slums or in over 2000 “slum pockets” across the city.