In Asia's largest slum, free new digs are scorned
Mumbai's Dharavi slum is slated for demolition, but residents, feeling left behind India's go-go growth, want to stay.
from the March 21, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Residents fear social divisions
Activists also fear the social fabric of the slum will be torn by change. Life is lived in an intimate jumble in Dharavi: People cook, work, bathe, and gossip on every patch of pavement, and the air is filled with the sounds of IndiPop, sewing machines, and hammers.
In high-rise apartments, life will be lonelier. With the arrival of the middle classes, it will become segregated too. "It will be like Manhattan on one side and a ghetto on the other," says the NSDF's Mr. Arputham.
Mukesh Mehta, the architect who is managing the development, disagrees. "Dharavi will be divided into five sectors, and in each there will be housing for slum dwellers and mor-middle-class buyers," he says, adding that he plans to make India "slumless" by 2020. Dharavi is his first experiment.
But clearing the slums will not, in itself, consign them to history. Until there is affordable housing in India's burgeoning cities, new slums will always spring up. "Rent control and draconian building measures make low-cost housing a high-risk, low-return business," says Mr. Shah. "Fix this, then clear the slums."
In the meantime, Dharavi's transformation will require some careful handling. Poor as they are, slum dwellers' powers are not limited to political clout.
In his Dharavi office, Arputham points to an aerial map of the slum and the train lines that slice through it. "When the building starts, I will ask a few thousand people to spend the night sleeping on the tracks," he warns. "Mumbai will be brought to a standstill."
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