mumbai

• Mumbai


  India's largest city with a population of 18.4 million in 2015, built on a low-lying island in the Arabian Sea on the west coast of India

  
• Pavement Dwellers

  • Live on the pavements of Mumbai's streets, using the walls or fences of buildings as the back wall of their home, materials used include cloth, corrugated iron, cardboard, wood, plastic, and sometimes bricks, approximately half are from the poorest districts in the state of Maharashtra, the other half came from the poorest parts of wider India
• Shanty Towns

  • Multi-ethnic settlements, grew due to rural poor migrating into Mumbai, low-rise building style and narrow street structure make them very cramped and confined (densely populated), rent is as low as 500 rupees a month (about £5), many of the buildings lack clean water, electricity or toilets
• Chawls

  • Residential apartment blocks, typically 4 to 5 stories tall, with between 8 and 16 apartments on each floor (apartments are known as kholis, which means 'rooms'), a kholi consists of one room that functions both as a living and sleeping space, and a kitchen that also serves as a dining room, families on each floor have to share a common bathroom
• Mumbai's population has grown rapidly since the 1950s due to natural increase and migration into the city, as a result the city has grown northwards and westwards onto the mainland, along railway lines in and out of the city
• Most migrants move into Mumbai from poorer parts of India, such as rural Maharashtra State and Uttar Pradesh in northern India
• Cheap rail fares allow this migration to take place, many of these migrants end up living in very poor conditions
• Pull Factors (attraction to the city)

  • Gaining employment
  • Better future for children
  • Accessing services, eg schools and hospitals
  • Joining friends and family
  • Entertainment
• Push Factors (bad things about rural areas)

  • Escaping poverty
  • Low wages
  • Lack of education and healthcare
  • Dangerous
• Dharavi

  • Home to more than a million people, unending stretch of narrow dirty lanes, open sewers and cramped huts, located between Mumbai's two main suburban rail lines, most people find it convenient for work, many residents have a small colour television with a cable connection, large number of thriving small-scale industries that produce embroidered garments, export quality leather goods, pottery and plastic, 80% of residents work, mainly in the informal sector, the annual turnover of business here is estimated to be more than £700m a year
• Formal Employment

  Examples in Mumbai: working in government, banking and finance, IT, textile factories, sea port, regular wage (e.g. every week/month), must be over a minimum wage, rules to keep workers healthy and safe, qualifications required, taxes paid to the government (e.g. 10% of what you earn) = paid holidays, pensions and sickness benefits
• Informal Employment


  Examples in Mumbai: rickshaw driving (taxi), clothes washing, street vending, recycling (ragpicking), cash in hand, not regulated by the government so no set rules on minimum wage and regularity of payment, no rules on worker health and safety, do not necessarily need a qualification, usually do not pay taxes = no paid holidays, pensions or sickness benefits
• Redeveloping Dharavi - Top Down

  • Advantages: Large amounts of money invested to rebuild, expertise in place to plan and deliver change, new housing has electricity and water supply. Disadvantages: Homes are demolished, Dharavi residents may not be able to afford to buy or rent a new property, destroys employment structures as many small workshops and factories have to close, tears apart communities who have lived nearby for many years
• Redeveloping Dharavi - Bottom Up

  • Microcredit programmes extend small loans to very poor people for self-employment projects that generate income, allowing them to care for themselves and their families, an example is Grameen Bank, this is especially helpful to women in places such as Dharavi