Millionaire Slumdog

Yesterday I took a tour to Dharavi Slum in the center of Mumbai. Over half of Mumbai live in slums and Dharavi is the largest with over 1million people living in 1.7 sq km. The slum was established in the mid 1800's and the generations continue on. The land is government owned but the physical structures are their own. The city now provides electricity and water as of 1995 I believe. The annual turnover is $665 million US and the factory conditions are unbelievable. I have not worn Nike since 1992 as they are repeatidly being charged with poor factory conditions and child labour. Well, I am not quite sure how I am going to eat cooking oil, use paint or anything plastic again..........

On average 6 people live in 100 sq feet and 1% have their own toilet. 72% use the community toilet which gets cleaned twice a month, 1% pay 1 rupee a day to use the pay per use toilet which is cleaned daily and the remainder use the great outdoors. Whenever I have taken a train from Mumbai I have seen people using the 'washroom' near the tracks. Well, now I know why. The slum is between the two main railway tracks and 26% of them use the tracks as their toilet! Needless to say, I almost pee'd myself on the tour!

Many people never leave the slum IN THEIR LIFE as it has everything. Having said that, many government employees live in the slum as this is all they can afford in Mumbai as well.... The people (mainly men) who work in the slum factories earn 100 rupees (2.50 cdn) a day and usually provide for a family of 6 on this. This is why they never get out.

The main industries are recycling, making clay pots, bakeries, leather tanning and poppadom making. We got to watch the plastic recycling business from the start which is any scrap plastic including computer monitors from North America to the shredding, cleaning, drying, coloring, stringing and then the final product of plastic pellets which over 2000 products are then made from. When you see this in action and the other factories I realized why the motto which you hear on a regular basis in India is 'everything is possible.'

Really, everything I have ever thought about India and the reasons why I come to India were captured in Dharavi Slum. From my first post: "There is something magical about India's spirituality, almost like an open air church! The culture fascinates me and it is a land of great diversity; poverty and richness, love and hate, tolerance for most but yet a caste system which is alive and thriving. I feel like I learn so much about humanity when I am there and it gives me time to continue to learn about myself and life in general." Dharavi Slum is all of that and so much more....

80% of the NGO's profits go back to the slum via english classes, computer classes and recreational activities for the children. I feel very certain my $400 rupees will be put to excellent use!

(Millionaire Slumdog is a movie which has been nominated for 4(?) Golden Globes. It is about and filmed in a Mumbai slum!)