The heart of Mumbai

After having explored the usual “sights” we went on a different type of experience, a tour of the Dharavi slum, one of Asia’s largest. In numbers, which vary depending on the source, it has a population of around 700,000 and the businesses situated in the area generate an estimated one billion USD per year. One number that doesn’t vary is its small size of 2.1sq km which makes it, combined with the large population, one of the most densely populated areas in the world. It was different from what we expected, yes, it is filthy and there are many open sewers and there is definitely pollution. However, glimpsing into peoples homes, reveals clean and tiled interiors, there are schools and the more polluted business area is separated from the living quarters of the families inhabiting the area. Further more, there are restrictions on building hight and heavily polluting industries such as melting plastic pallets have been banned. Pictures to this part of the post have been downloaded from the tour operator Reality Tours. On the train ride back we made a brief stop at the famous open air laundry which is in declining use due to washing machine usage at home, but still very impressive.

© Reality Tours and Travel

© Reality Tours and Travel

Dhobi Ghats

Dharavi, neither black nor white