Mumbai’s Dharavi slum occupies a plot half the size of Central Park. It is home to one million people, with almost half of residents living in spaces under 10m2, making it over six times as dense as daytime Manhattan. Local tour operators emphasize the productivity of the slum, with its annual turnover of $665 million generated from its hutment industries. Its poor sanitation, lack of clean water, squalid conditions and overcrowding are ignored and replaced by a vision of resourcefulness, hard work and diligence. Dharavi is perceived as a manufacturing hub and retail experience; and in some cases even romanticized as a model of contentment and neighbourliness, with western visitors transformed by ‘life-changing’, ‘eye-opening’ and ‘mind-blowing’ experiences.
Looking for something different than the usual dose of museums, parks, city or a town we visited the Slums. We visited from the point of view of tourism and explored both the industrial site as well as the domestic area which had houses and buildings. As we wanted to give something back to the people there and make it worth visiting, my students made 'Slum Tour Brochure' and distributed across the school to let many of people help to boost slum tourism.
School - DSB International School
Comments