I went for the Dharavi Tour on Saturday with Dhruti and her colleague – The new trend in reality tours compared to the usual Bombay Darshan Tours.
The Dharavi Tour has become quite a hit after Lonely Planet recommended it and also thanks to Slumdog Millionaire.
I was asked by the Tour Guide Sunil, why as an Indian and Bombayite, I was interested in the Tour, I had a few reasons :-
a) I wanted to check the 665 million US$ Small Scale Industry.
b) I wanted to check if the tour guys were portraying Bombay and India correctly or we they marketing poverty and exploiting the foreigners.
c) My Dad had lived in Dharavi for a while when he came to Bombay 40 years ago.
Something I liked and disliked was that Photography was not allowed, I was carrying my Camera and couldn’t click, but then I respect the tour guides view that Photography would lead to Poverty Marketing and all other kinds of exploitation and issues.
Industries and Stuff shown on the Dharavi Tour
- Plastic Recycling Unit
- Kumbharwada : Clay pots & Pottery units
- Embroidery and Tailoring Unit.
- Bakery
- Leather Tanning
- Pappad making
- Soap making Unit
- NGO School
The tour is safe and people are very friendly, but one needs to watch out for narrow alleys, pipes and wires hitting your head, open gutters and at times shit.
The sad part is that even though people of all religions work together they live separately in their own Ghetto’s (Muslim area, Tamil area, Kumbharwada – Gujarati Area, Maharashtrian area etc), can’t blame them the ghosts of ’92 riots might be still haunting them.
Dharavi Tour Group
Sunil – The Guide
Dharavi Post Cards for Sale
The tour is conducted by Reality Tours, they charge 400 bucks per person, a part of the proceeds go to the NGO School they manage.
Website : http://www.realitytoursandtravel.com/slumtours.html
Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharavi
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It is mind boggling that inspite of money being generated by the small scale industries and self employed people, why can not the Dharavi have basic sanitation, or will it loose its “ESSENTIAL” charecter.
Hey!
We do a lot of community based work in Dharavi. Infact we have even made a site called dharavi.org based on our studies of different nagars/neighborhoods in dharavi and documented them all there. The Social Club @ New Transit Camp in Dharavi is our one of the most innovative ways to connect with people of Dharavi. Read more about it here http://bit.ly/2M1fym We hold inoovative urban planning workshops in the heart of Dharavi and even have a very informative internship program for International Students. http://urbz.net/about/internships/ Feel free to get back to me if you want to get involved with us in any manner.
Nishit
Hi Subba,
I too believed that when people spoke about the “665 million US$ Small Scale Industry” it meant that people were self-employed and had some disposable income. But I was part of the same tour group as Satish and during the tour I realised that most industry were owned by big seths and lalas who lived in Malabar Hill or Walkeshwar or some other fancy area and the Dharavi was an easy sweat shop for them with the workers being paid a pittance for long work hours in abyssimal conditions. And yes, basic amenities are not made available to these people lest they start aspiring for a better life.
Rgds,
Chris