Avatar Posted by helo 286 days ago (http://www.time.com)
Category: Society | Tags: dharavi slum state remaking mumbai
There's not much that the inhabitants of Dharavi can't recycle. Every day thousands of workers in India's most crowded slum--600,000 people squeezed into 500 acres (200 hectares) in the heart of Mumbai--shred plastic, mend clothes, strip computers, sort and bundle paper, fix machinery, flatten cardboard and clean and crush glass. The level of specialization is extraordinary. In the workshop of Abdul Salaam, two women use hammers to deftly pound the metal nibs out of the ends of dozens of plastic pen refills that they clutch like handfuls of fat spaghetti. Someone else will clean the refills, and a third group will shred the plastic into tiny granules that Salaam then sells for a profit of about $0.05 per lb. ($0.02 per kg). "New goods have very high rates," he explains over the relentless hammering. "There is profit in old stuff if you know how to find it."

Mumbai authorities apparently agree. The state government of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is the capital, wants to raze dozens of slums like Dharavi for redevelopment and new infrastructure as part of its multibillion-dollar plan to turn the city into a world-class financial center by 2015. No one doubts that India's business capital needs a makeover. Bad roads and inefficient or nonexistent public transport make getting around Mumbai a nightmare; monsoon rains and clogged rivers and drains regularly submerge whole sections of the city. In areas wet and dry, however, property prices are higher than those in midtown Manhattan. But the redevelopment plans will displace up to half the 14 million to 18 million people in India's largest city and challenge the idea that poor and rich can live side by side in a tumultuous democracy. Even the poorest in Mumbai agree that the city needs to change. But, they ask, at what cost?
Discuss   Tell a friend   Bury

Comments Who Voted Related Links