Dharavi

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Dharavi is a heart-shaped settlement in central Mumbai, India. Sandwiched between Mahim in the west and Sion in the east, is Dharavi — Asia's largest slum. Spread over an area of 1.75 km² along the Mahim river, Dharavi is a bustling collection of contiguous settlements, each with its own identity. Dharavi is home to over a million people.

[edit] Geography

Dharavi is located between Mumbai's two main suburban railway lines, Western and Central Railway. These are the virtual lifelines of Mumbai's transport system. Dharavi is literally sandwiched between the two sets of tracks. To its west are Mahim and Bandra, to the north lies the Mithi River, which empties into the Arabian Sea through the Mahim Creek, and to its south and east are Sion and Matunga, Mahim.

Arterial Roads

Mahim Sion Link Road
60 Ft Road
Dharavi Main Road

[edit] History

Dharavi was not always a slum, and it is as old as Bombay. In the Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island (1909), Dharavi is mentioned as one of the 'six great Koliwadas of Bombay," or as one of the city's great fishing communities. The original inhabitants of Dharavi were kolis, the fisherfolk, who lived at the edge of the creek that came in from the Arabian Sea. A dam at Sion, which was adjacent to Dharavi, also hastened the process of joining separate islands into one long, tapered mass. Thus began the transformation of the island city of Bombay. In the process, the creek dried up, Dharavi's fisherfolk were deprived of their traditional sustenance, and the newly emerged land from the marshes provided space for new communities to move in. The migrants could be roughly divided into broad categories. The first were people from Maharashtra, and in particular from the Konkan coast, as well from Gujarat. Potters from Saurashtra were allocated land in Dharavi to establish what is till today called Kumbharwada. The other settlers were direct migrants to the city, many of them trained in a trade or a craft. Muslim tanners from Tamil Nadu migrated to Dharavi and set up the leather tanning industry. Other artisans, like the embroidery workers from Uttar Pradhesh, started the ready-made garments trade. From Tamil Nadu, workers joined the flourishing business of making savouries and sweets like chakli, chiki and mysore pak.