Dharavi Regeneration Essay

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Dharavi Essay

 

 Dharavi is one of the biggest slums in the world. It is located to the east of Mahim bay to the north of the Central Business District (CBD). It started as a marsh area that gradually became a shanty town; which then became a permanent area of the city. In 1999, its population was 750,000(now well over 1million), with a population density of 230,000 people per square kilometre. The value of this land has risen dramatically because of rural to urban migration which has caused population density to rise in the CBD so much that now there is not enough land for residents to reside; residents therefore now live on land worth millions of pounds making this land full of controversy in many respects.

The main problem for Dharavi started due to rural-urban migration the population has grown beyond control to the point of where approximately 50% of Mumbai’s population live in slums (Dharavi being the biggest). This has led to Dharavi being composed of ‘make-do’ housing (such as fabric, plywood or recycling materials). On top of that 200 families have to share one stand pipe for clean water and two toilets (though the figures may be even more drastic as other figures show that more than 2million do not have access to a toilet and 6million go without clean drinking water in Mumbai as a whole). This may be a big factor to why there are poor sanitary conditions (which include poor sewage disposal) in the slums and are the reason for diseases. Amplified by severe weather conditions during the monsoons this causes problems for clean drinking water as this becomes scarce.  Also, there have been illegal redirections of pipes so that water can be ‘burrowed’ for the use of residents. There are also issues with privacy and security just from shear crowding while the mafia control and profit from illegal activities within Dharavi. Most people do not have access to electricity or T.V.’s which are considered to be more of a luxury.

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However, this is one the ‘better’ shanty towns to live in. Why? Since it is the slum of ‘hope’ this may be due to the fact some families have lived there for generations or long periods of time; which has led to development because some people now have brick housing, running water and even electricity. What's more, local communities provide recreational facilities, industries, healthcare, roads local communities and schools but most importantly provide hundreds of thousands of jobs. Besides, industries within Dharavi contribute £1billion to India’s economy yearly which helps to keep unemployment rates down though most of this is ...

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