27 May 2008: We are witnessing a watershed event in human evolution. For the first time in history, more people reside in our world’s cities than in the country. With the global population surging it is the megalopolis that is bearing the brunt of world growth, dealing with the consequences of too little resources for too many people. Experts estimate that by 2030 the world’s population will exceed eight billion people. Of those, five billion will live in cities, resulting in the swelling of city slums, which are expected to be home to some two billion people by the same year, double of today’s number.

Cities are for many poor around the world an escape from the bleak isolation and uncertainty of life in the country often dependent upon unreliable rainfall and access to land and other expensive and sometimes unattainable agricultural resources. Cities are and have always been beacons; magnets for those seeking the possibility to make a better life for themselves and their families. Today we are seeing the largest case of rural flight in history. In countries throughout the world, this influx of people into urban areas—many of whom are extremely poor—has transformed the landscapes of cities and created what we have come to know as “megaslums”.

In India, 158.4 million people—56% of the country’s urban population—live in city slums characterized by their lack of durable buildings, leases, or titles to land and property, adequate living space and access to sanitary drinking water and toilets. No slum in India is larger than Mumbai’s Dharavi district, home to between 600,000 and one million people crammed into one square mile of abject urban poverty. Figures of just how many people live in Dharavi are hard to determine for many obvious reasons including that it was officially considered an illegal squatter settlement until 2004 with no zoning parameters, deeded land, or building regulations. It has been called the largest contiguous slum in Asia, competing with Karachi’s Orangi Township for that inauspicious title. Dharavi has grown organically from a small fishing settlement on what was once Bombay’s northern fringe, into one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Mumbai, attracting in times of hardship Indians of all sorts with the lure of a more prosperous life in the city.

Dharavi however, was swallowed by the rapidly growing commercial center of Mumbai, formerly Bombay, India’s largest city. What was once the northern fringe has become the city’s heart. It is geographically and psychologically at the center of Mumbai, a constant of Indian struggle, fortitude, and industriousness surrounded by the modernity of a global city. 

It has become a unique example of entrepreneurship. Its residents are not unmotivated or bitter. They understand their situation and make the most of what they have. There is nothing in Dharavi that cannot be recycled. Everything is used and reused, then modified to sell for a profit. Recycling in Dharavi, as in most megaslums throughout the world is big business. There are also a number of more traditional industries that thrive in Dharavi, like leatherworking, textiles, furniture production, potteries, and bakeries. Many residents sell produce, do laundry, and run their own local businesses like bars and restaurants. It is estimated that up to 70% of the buildings in Dharavi are used commercially. There is little to no government regulation and no outsiders or charity, just people struggling to improve their standard of living. In a 2002 study it was found that 85% of households in Dharavi had a television, 75% had a pressure cooker, 56% a gas stove, and 21% a telephone; telling statistics of what some families in Dharavi have managed to attain despite their surroundings.

All of this however, will soon change. Dharavi’s location at the center of one of the most dynamic cities in the world and most economically important city in India has caused many developers to scratch their heads in bewilderment while salivating over the site’s possibilities. It is estimated that the land alone on which Dharavi’s shanties sit represents over $10 billion in dead capital. The government of Maharashtra—the Indian state of which Mumbai is the capital—has approved a development proposal worth $2.3 billion submitted by urban designer and architect Mukesh Mehta to rehabilitate Dharavi into a sustainable, slum-free neighborhood. Mr. Mehta’s plans include much-needed infrastructural improvements such as wider roads, electricity, and a sewer system with an ample water supply. There are also plans for a hospital, schools, a university, business parks, hotels, restaurants, and India’s largest cricket grounds with seats for upwards of 120,000 fans.

As for Dharavi’s current residents, Mehta’s proposal includes relocating 57,000 registered families into 225 sq.ft. local high-rise flats free of charge. The “free” high-rises will be constructed by private firms that will be subsidized and given great incentives to also build high market value housing as part of the same project. Already, developers from around the world are clamoring to get in early on the action. 

Since the people in Dharavi do not technically own the land on which they live, their consent is not needed for the project’s approval. Conversely, the hundreds of thousands of illegal squatters who are not eligible for the free housing will have to relocate, their businesses, if they own any, will be bulldozed to make way for the reconstruction. Though plans exist to provide some with housing, the businesses that thrive in Dharavi’s tax and regulation free environment will be lost and replaced with for-rent commercial storefronts.

For the residents of Dharavi who are aware of these plans the project is seen as an unwelcomed facelift that manages to alienate the poor and force them once again to the periphery of the society. Many welcome development, but they feel that Mr. Mehta’s scheme is one aimed not to develop the existing but to replace it. There are examples of Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) high-rise housing buildings nearby. Many say that their Stalinist facades and fading paint do not encourage enthusiasm about the project. They highlight rather, the characteristics of the slum that its residents will miss most, its history, its community, and its freedom. Yet, in the midst of such impoverished conditions, the tradition of Dharavi becomes an expendable attribute to be replaced by the wave of modernity.