Mumbai, be grateful for the Dharavi wart

It's the biggest wart on the face of an already pockmarked and scarred Mumbai. Most residents of this gigantic city that's home to about 19 million people feel embarrassed whenever the name Dharavi comes up. A sprawling, stinking mass of tin, tarpaulin, cardboard, brick, slush and sewage that throbs in the very the heart of Mumbai, Dharavi was till a few months ago considered Asia's largest slum. In September the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) said the Pakistani city of Karachi has now wrested that dubious distinction with the spread of its Orangi township.

Anyway, the size of Dharavi (175 hectares, housing a million people) isn't the point of this blog. Last night I was surfing channels and came across a programme called Slum City on National Geographic. I stopped to watch, and was mesmerised. I knew so little of what went on within that fragile, choking city within a city!

I knew that Dharavi was the main centre for the production of leather goods in Mumbai. Many of our American friends and acquaintances have made endless trips there to shop for bags, jackets, overcoats and belts - some even custom made. I also knew that there were several small-scale garments manufacturing units there. I knew that several designers make use of embroiderers and crochet artisans from Dharavi.

But what I learnt from Slum City came as a very pleasant surprise. Dharavi is apparently the epicentre of garbage segregation and recycling in India's financial capital. Had it not been for the queen of the slums, Mumbai would be sitting on a heap of refuse of Himalayan proportions. Mounds and mounds of inorganic waste are painstakingly sorted, segregated and recycled within the slum every single day. Plastic, tin, paper, rubber, metal - anything and everything is reincarnated in Dharavi. I knew recycling was big in Dharavi, but I had no idea of the scale.

Instead of being ashamed of its presence, Mumbai should be thankful to Dharavi and its enterprising people. The city's collective endeavour should be to find out how to assist these recycling businesses and make them cleaner, more efficient.

We know that the government's efforts to redevelop Dharavi are failing miserably. Many residents have been promised small homes with electicity and sanitation, but in alternate locations. The residents, while all for better living conditions, just don't want to relocate. When it comes to location, Dharavi is better placed than most upscale neighbourhoods. It is close to the airports, to the three main inner-city train lines, and to both the expressways that lead into and out of Mumbai. Naturally, its people don't wish to live anywhere else.

The state should perhaps start with giving the recycling businesses in Dharavi a helping hand. Maybe efforts to expand the recycling facilites will entice the people involved to move to bigger, better and cleaner spaces. Or at least to clean up their current locations. Just remember Mumbai, we're deeply indebted to these people. We owe it to them to try and make their lives better.