Mumbai Case Study

• Economic opportunities


  Chances for people to improve their standard of living through employment
• Formal economy

  Type of employment where people work to receive a regular wage and are assured certain rights e.g. paid holidays, sickness leave. Wages are taxed.
• Informal economy


  Type of employment comprising work done without the official knowledge of the government and therefore without paying taxes. It is common in many LICs.
• Social opportunities


  Chances for people to improve their quality of life, for instance access to education and health care
• Squatter settlement


  An area of poor-quality housing, lacking in amenities such as water supply, sewerage and electricity, which often develops spontaneously and illegally in a city in an LIC
• Mumbai can be found in Maharashtra state in the West of India
• Mumbai is not the most populous of Indian cities but it is one of the most important economically and culturally
• Mumbai is a MEGACITY, with a population of over 12 million people
• Mumbai's geographic location


  • On a major shipping route through the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, along with other shipping routes
  • Has a major airport
  • Connected to other Indian cities via railway and road links
• Mumbai's location attracted fishermen initially, then British Colonisers and was the ideal place for a port, as Mumbai is built on an island with a river estuary to the East, protecting the ships from waves in the Indian Ocean when in dock
• Mumbai is a city of contrasts, being one of the richest cities in Asia but also home to some of the world's poorest people
• Mumbai accounts for 6% of India's GDP, 40 % of foreign trade, and 25% of industrial production. In total, the city creates US$10 billion in corporate taxes and its per-capita income is higher than the national average
• Mumbai is the entertainment, fashion and commercial centre of India
• Mumbai is one of the world's top 10 centres of commerce in terms of global financial flow
• Mumbai has the headquarters of a number of Indian financial institutions such as the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Reserve Bank of India, and numerous Indian companies such as the Tata Group. Most of these offices are located in downtown South Mumbai which is the nerve centre of the Indian economy
• Many foreign companies also have their branches in the South Bombay area
• Mumbai is the world's 29th largest city by GDP
• Economic opportunities


  Chances for people to improve their standard of living through employment
• Economies of scale


  It is easier and cheaper to provide the services people desire when there are lots of people
• Social opportunities in Mumbai

  • Health care
  • Education
  • Water supply
  • Energy
• Health care in Mumbai

  People have easier access to a wider range of medical services including doctors, hospitals and nurses. Even the poor have access to basic medical services that they either would not have in the rural areas or would have to travel very long distances for.
• Education in Mumbai


  Migrants often move to cities to have access to schools for their children, so that their children have a much better chance in life than themselves.
• Water supply in Mumbai

  In Dharavi slum the water pipes are only in use 2 hours a day and there are queues for this water. However, this is clean drinking water, which often not available in poorer rural areas or involves a time consuming labour intensive walk for (mainly) women to the local well.
• Energy in Mumbai


  Living in a large city like Mumbai allows people to live with all of the benefits of energy and electricity.
• Economic opportunities in Mumbai

  • Employment opportunities ranging from working for major financial institutions to basic jobs like rag picking
  • Mumbai accounts for 6% of India's GDP and 40% of its foreign trade
  • 25% of India's industrial production is in Mumbai
  • Headquarters of Indian financial institutions and companies
• Formal economy in Mumbai

  Registered jobs where workers pay taxes and companies have legal obligations to protect workers, offer holidays and pay regular wages
• Informal economy in Mumbai

  Jobs with no minimum wage, no tax payments, no holiday rights and often dangerous/hazardous conditions. Examples include rag picking, recycling, pottery making, street vending.
• Informal economy jobs in Mumbai

  • Cost little to set up, use simple tools, and are labour intensive
• Despite the difficulties, the informal economy offers poor and uneducated people a foothold in the city where they can earn money and start to improve their quality of life
• Positives of Dharavi slum

  • Informal shopping areas
  • Mosques catering for religious needs
  • Pottery area with community centre
  • Rooms with multiple functions like living, working and sleeping, helping to generate a sense of community
  • Buildings of different heights and colours, adding interest and diversity
• 85% of people in Dharavi slum have a job and work locally, and some have even managed to become millionaires
• Inequalities


  Differences between poverty and wealth, as well as in peoples' wellbeing and access to things like jobs, housing and education. Inequalities may occur in housing provision, access to services, access to open land, safety and security.
• Pollution


  The presence of chemicals, noise, dirt or other substances which have harmful or poisonous effects on an environment.
• Sanitation


  Measures designed to protect public health, including the provision of clean water and the disposal of sewage and waste.
• Traffic congestion


  Occurs when there is too great a volume of traffic for roads to cope with, so traffic jams form and traffic slows to a crawl.
• Mumbai is a city that faces many challenges and those challenges are large because of its immense size and rapid growth.
• Social opportunities

  Chances for people to improve their quality of life, for instance access to education and health care
• Physical Geography also plays a role, as Mumbai has been limited in where it can grow because it originally grew at the southern end of an island surrounded by the Arabian Sea and 2 rivers.
• Slums

  The major problem in Mumbai is the growth of squatter settlements known in India as SLUMS. These slums come with many issues for people including the lack of planned access to clean water and sanitation systems, poor health, lack of education, unemployment and the prospect of crime.
• Slums


  • Dharavi slum, which is the largest squatter settlement located in Mumbai (formally Bombay) in India. There are a million people crammed into one square mile in Dharavi.