Dharavi is the hub of small-scale manufacturing and industrial units. The commercial and industrial structures mainly operate in garments, plastic recycling, dyeing, aluminium moulding, leather processing, farsan making, pottery and box making as commercial and industrial units. Apart from the se commercial activities recycling, farsan making and pottery are other commercial activities carried out in Dharavi. A general figure usually mentioned is that the commercial activities in the vast slum generate $ 1 billion per year.
Tens of thousands of workers are employed in these units. The current plan is mute on the rehabilitation of workers. Workers in these units are migrants from Bihar, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Most of them migrated to Mumbai to escape acute poverty in their home states. Displacement of their workplace and work shall not just impact them but impact over lakh families who are dependent on these migrants. There is no clear plan for rehabilitation of these workers. The tenement owner shall be compensated in the form of a commercial or industrial unit but the workers shall be forced to dwell in these units as was the arrangement before.
while the current Dharavi Redevelopment seems to address the needs of the people of Dharavi, it will eventually and the city at large. Dharavi is a complex ecosystem of residences, rentals, commercial and industrial units. On paper, the proposed plan addresses each of these but in reality, it will destroy the lives and livelihoods of toilers who find employment in these commercial and industrial units. It will disrupt occupations like garment manufacturing and allied industries, leather bags and accessories, waste recycling, fishing and others. It will also displace home-based work that is carried out to support these occupations. It will also increase the drudgery of people in the construction industry and domestic work. Work will be lost for men and women in large numbers. It will not impact the migrant workers and their families here but their families back in their native states – Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. The need at the present juncture is to support the already existing economies when every 3rd person in the working age is unemployed.
by Shweta Damle
20/05/2025