50% of Mumbai’s population live in a slum so we thought we had best visit in order to get a true picture of life in Mumbai. We did not want to feed on peoples poverty so we joined a company that sends 80% of the profit back to the slum… we even visited the school they run. The slum we visited is 1.75KM square and housed 1.5million people
It was an amazing sight . This was not an area where people have given up but a thriving economic powerhouse. The GDP of the slum is sizable and the government even collects tax from the businesses that operate here. The main focus was upon recycling materials and manufacturing clothes for export. The work all looked very very hard there was no health and safety considerations and I don’t think life expectancy is too high.
That said people worked hard and appeared to be making the best of their lot. The children were clean and playing and the adults working hard and there was not too much of a smell. Not to put too much gloss on the situation was very cramped and poor and the children play games such as chase and kill the rat (rat looked like it was loosing)
We found that slum dwellers are the better off poor. The street dwellers are the very poorest, always at risk of being moved on, robber and attached. Whilst I would not like to stay for any extended period in the Slum it was well worth a visit as it brought home where our cheep clothes came from and how hard I do not work in comparison.
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