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MUMBAI IN NUMBERS!
Mumbai is a unique city, the most densely populated in the world, housing a mish-mash of over 22 million people. The statistics coming out of this manic metropolis are so fascinating that it seems necessary to dedicate an entire blog-entry to them.
We arrived in Mumbai in the late afternoon and headed straight to the infamous Leopold's for a sneaky beef burger and a beer. This café, a popular Western hangout, was one of the locations where the notorious 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks occurred when Pakistani militants armed with machine guns stormed the city killing 172 people. The bullet holes can still be seen today! It was also the local haunt for the characters in 'Shantaram' for those who have toiled through its many pages!
Later that evening we wandered to the India Gate and the exclusive Taj Palace Hotel for one very pricey drink just to say we'd been there. The hotel was allegedly built by an incensed businessman who was refused entry to the luxurious Watson's Hotel which was in those days for 'whites only'. The Taj is also known for the 2008 terrorist attacks as it was here that militants holed themselves and hostages up in hotel rooms for three days until police were able to regain control.
Walking through the people-filled city streets it was easy to see the enormous divide in wealth in Mumbai; corrugated iron shacks set against vast skyscrapers, expensive suits and saris contrasted with the soiled rags of the homeless, acclaimed restaurants serving mouth-watering food to the middle class while hungry children scavenge the streets outside. A city where 55% of its inhabitants live in slums, Mumbai is also home to India's wealthiest man Mukesh Ambani, who lives in the world's largest and most expensive family home, the 27 story Antilia building worth a whopping 1 billion US dollars!
The architecture in Mumbai is very grand with old colonial buildings that have been turned into world heritage sites. The train station is one such building although its beauty can sometimes be eclipsed by the swarms of people pouring in and out if it every day. Over 6.9 million people use the Mumbai train network on a daily basis and 10 of these people die each day falling from moving trains.
The following day we opted to do a tour of the city focusing on the biggest slum in Asia, the 173 year old Dharavi Slum. The aim of the company (Reality Tours) is to educate and change people's perceptions of slum life. We began by taking a drive through Kamadi Pura, Mumbai's red-light district. Most of the women here have been bought into prostitution from a young age and will never leave the profession. Many battle with HIV/AIDS and none will ever marry due to the stigma that comes with their forced vocation. The last HIV review estimated that 2.47million people in India have HIV/AIDS. It was also here in Kamadi Pura that we learnt that there are thought to be over 500,000 child sex workers in the country. An unthinkable figure!
We then moved on to a much more positive part of the city, Dhobi Ghats, the biggest laundry in the world. The outdoor laundry has over 10,000 workers who wash, beat and hang clothes and linen delivered from hotels, hospitals and residences of Mumbai. Over 200,000 items are washed on a daily basis in the 730 concrete laundry cubes spread across the ghats. While watching some very industrious workers colour-coordinating their drying racks, we realized that the washing we'd put in at the hotel was probably down there being pummelled clean and would hopefully find its way back to our hotel room in the evening. Not only did it all arrive back but it was the cheapest, cleanest, best-pressed laundry we've had done on our trip!
After the Dhobi Ghats we headed to Dharavi Slum which houses over 1 million people within 1.75 square kilometres (that's the entire greater Wellington region living around Courtenay Place)! Our guide warned us that there'd be some challenging sights and smells and asked that we don't point or cover our noses in respect of the people who live in Dharavi (clearly he'd had some ignorant tourists in the past). We began our tour in the commercial section of the slum where tens of thousands of men, women and children earn a living salvaging, collecting, sorting and collating every scrap of waste imaginable. Bottle tops, oil cans, garden chairs, metal pipes, plastics helmets are all stacked up in trembling towers ready to be ground down, melted and moulded into something brand spanking new like a mobile phone cover or a part for a car engine. "One man's trash is another man's treasure" has never been a truer word - in fact as a result of this incredible waste recycling business, Dharavi slum has an annual turnover of over US$1 billion dollars! As we shuffled through the narrow alleys it was clear that everybody here had a role, a purpose and a sense of belonging. Remarkably, Dharavi slum appears to be the most professional and efficiently run place we've visited in India thus far!
The residential sector of the slum was a slightly different experience. The dark and narrow alleys we wandered down were full of little children roaming barefoot, women making dinner in the doorways of their tiny homes and raw sewage flowing down the gutters beside us. Forty-eight percent of these residents live in a house that is less than 10sq metres in size with an average family size of 4-5 people. Strangely, the whole area felt very clean until we came across a mass dumping ground full of household rubbish, human waste and toxic chemicals strewn across the land. We were told that Indian people have the mentality that it's fine to dump waste anywhere but your own home and as a consequence there are exposed waste grounds stinking throughout the slum.
Another problem the Dharavi residents face is a lack of toilet facilities. Most homes are too small to have their own bathroom and 71% of residents use shared community toilets. This equates to 1 toilet per 15,000 people. You can only imagine the stink! As a result of the poor facilities and lack of hygiene, hundreds of people die every year from dysentery, diarrhoea and other bacterial ailments. In a public health survey it was estimated that in 2008 over 700,000 Indians died of diarrhoea!
The 2000 slums in Mumbai are home to Indian people from all walks of life. Religion, caste and occupation are irrelevant there - in fact over 40% of Mumbai's police force live in slums. Despite health related issues, the Dharavi slum is a community where people live, learn and work together and appear happy with their lot. It really is a phenomenal place to visit and we certainly came away with a fresh perspective!
High: Being inspired by happy people who have very little but are prepared to work hard to better their own lives!
Low: Having to ignore the countless number of children and elderly beggars on the street - it is never an easy thing to do!
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