Commission for Development Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences

FINAL REPORT Project number: 184

“Dharavi - Ground Up”: A Dwellers-Focused Design Tool for Upgrading

Living Space in Dharavi, Mumbai

AUTHORS: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Amita Bhide Arch. Mag.arch Martina Spies

Research project conducted by the following partners: Centre for Urban Planning and Governance in the School of Habitat Studies, TATA Institute of

Social Sciences, Mumbai, India: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Amita Bhide

Institute of Architecture, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria:

Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dipl.Ing. Dr. Karin Raith,

DCOOP Mumbai, Shilpa Ranede and Quaid Doongerwala Univ.-Prof. Dr. Marie-France Chevron, Universität Wien

Submitted 9 April, 2013

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OUTLINE OF THE REPORT

ABSTRACT 4

PART I

BACKGROUND 5

Introduction

PART II (A. Bhide)

GROUND UP_ THE STUDY 6

2.1 Dharavi Through the Lens of Livelihoods

2.2 Slums and Livelihoods 7

2.3 The History of Dharavi 8

PART III

METHODOLOGY 12

3.1 Combining research methods of architecture, urban morphology and sociology 12

3.2 Research methods of architecture and urban morphology 12

3.3 Research methods of sociology 13

PART IV and V (A. Bhide, M.Spies)

FINDINGS

4. Research of architecture and urban morphology: The Different Scales of the

System Dharavi :

4.1 The “City Scale” 15

4.2 The“ Intermediate Nagar Scale” 16

4.3 The “INagar Scale” 17

4.4 The“Quarter Scale” 19

4.5 The “Cell Scale” 21

Summary of the Architectural Research (M. Spies) 22

5. Research of Sociology: Study of the livelihoods within the communities (A. Bhide)

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5.1 Broom makers 24

5.2 Dhobis 27

5.3 Papad makers 30

5.4 Recyclers 32

5.4.1 Scale 1: Kabadi walas (shop owners) 33

5.4.2 Scale 2: Waste picker 37

PART VI (A. Bhide)

TRACING PATTERNS (A. Bhide) 40

6.1 Patterns 40

6.2 Changing Livelihoods ,Changing Spaces 42

6.3 Dharavi as a Mosaic of Livelihoods 45

6.4 Current concerns, Conclusions 46

BIBLIOGRAPHY 47

RESEARCH/CASE STUDIES (M.Spies) 53

8.1 Recycling case studies

8.2 Broommakers case studies

8.3 Transit Camp Case studies

8.4 Dhobi Ghat Cluster

8.5 Hanuman Chowk

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ABSTRACT

Dharavi, a central area within the megacity Mumbai and probably the largest informal settlement of Asia consists of about 80 “Nagars”. In these maximum density neighbourhoods ("Nagars") people from different backgrounds are living together under poor hygienic conditions. In 1971, Dharavi was declared a slum by the government of Maharahstra and since then, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority has initiated numerous redevelopment projects. But the high-rise buildings which have been built ignore the vital connection between home and workplace neglecting community spaces and references to the traditional housing culture of India.

The research focused on the livelihoods of the investigated communities/clusters and the solutions of spatial organization developed by the inhabitants.

The investigation of the social fabric and the spatial situation have revealed how the built structures ("hardware") reflect the social structures ("software"). Case studies show the coherences of the social, economic and architectonic changes during the last decades, through the lens of the inhabitants´livelihoods.

The outcome of this interdisciplinary cooperation between Indian and Austrian scientists and the combination of research methods in sociology, architecture and urban morphology has resulted in a body of acquired knowledge of the selected communities/clusters and the habitat demands of the inhabitants. Based on this a development strategy for the upgrading of Dharavi and a guideline („design tool“) for a careful and socially responsible structural transformation of the district has been designed. For a sustainable improvement this transformation has to meet the dwellers’ present needs as well as giving leeway to future developments.

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PART I

BACKGROUND

During the colonial period Mumbai grew to an industrial town and in the course of globalization to a mega city with about 18 million inhabitants. The economic capital still attracts tens of thousands people each year who come in search of work from all different rural parts of India. The development of infrastructure and housing construction cannot keep up with the growth of population: Nearly 50 percent of Mumbai's population is homeless or lives in illegally built slums on urban leftover spaces. Dharavi was set up by immigrants from Gujarat who built their first houses in the late 19th century on a mangrove swamp filled up with garbage, fish scraps and coconut leaves. Another community of tanners from Tamil Nadu settled nearby. Over the next few decades immigrants came from all parts of India to work in the booming textile industry. Extremely dense and complex living and working quarters have been developed covering an area of two and a half km - small huts, workshops and also higher buildings along the main roads. Dharavi is composed of 80 districts, so-called "Nagars" (in hindi: "city") built and dominated by different ethnic groups and communities. From their original villages the inhabitants brought along specific occupations, food habits, clothing styles and cultural and religious practices.

The urban structure is very intricate, as the Nagars are composed of a dense pattern of tiny apartments. In the building types within the Nagars, living and work space are always inextricably linked: Space is used in multiple ways as living and work area, due to the extreme lack of space and the further agglomeration by constant migration. Not only life in cramped conditions but also the knowledge of a constant uncertainty is a heavy burden on most residents: Security issues are not only associated with material subsistence- many people work in the so-called informal sector as day labourers or do unhealthy and inhumane activities - but also with the right to keep on staying in their homes. Only a minor group of people living in the slum have property rights on land and housing; most of them live in constant fear that their neighbourhood is being cleared and destroyed for public interest reasons. This is especially true for those who settled after 1995 while people who arrived before have at least the right for resettlement. The hygienic conditions are inhumane. The houses are poorly lit and ventilated. Private toilets are an exception rather than the rule, and public toilets are in a catastrophic condition. The daily routine of most women in Dharavi revolves around water supply which is usually only an hour per day available. On average, fifteen families share a water pipe.

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PART II

GROUND UP_ THE STUDY

2. DHARAVI THROUGH THE LENS OF LIVELIHOODS (A. Bhide)

2.1 Slums and Livelihoods

The research focuses on understanding Dharavi – reputed as one of the largest slums in Asia, through the lens of livelihoods. Slums have emerged as a contemporary urban challenge to policy makers and visionaries who view cities as the engines of growth for developing economies. The view points on what slums represent differ tremendously. Most policy makers view slums as a challenge, a problem generated by the contradictions of urbanization in developing countries and a product of flawed land and housing policies. In contrast, Robert Neuwirth portrays slums as shadow cities that represent an assertion of right to be in cities on part of those who have no access to property. Jeb Brugman furthers this view stating that slums are the next urban revolution, which democratizes right to the city that was hitherto confined to the privileged. Slums are also seen by him as the harbingers of sustainable living. In summary, the view of slums even now is as highly contested as it was in the post Second World War era from problematizing viewpoints to those that view slums as solutions. The actual policies lie somewhere in between. As Geoffrey points out, policies need to address themselves o two goals – one, to prevent further slum formation and two, to redress the current issues of slum dwellers. Settlements like Dharavi which are large, third generation slums present yet another challenge to policies. This is because they have evolved through years of encounters with the city and the state and managed to make a place with considerable layers of complexity. These complexities are not amenable to simplistic notions of either solutions or problems and demand a highly nuanced and complex understanding. This research is an attempt to do the same.

In recent years, much of the discourse around slums in India has revolved around housing. The most recent urban policy – Rajiv Awas Yojana which is an ambitious nationwide scheme begins with a declaration of slums being an integral feature of urbanization in India but declares its objective as creating slum free cities. Slum free cities are to be created through rehabilitation of existing slums through city wide strategies that could comprise upgradation, in situ rehabilitation or resettlement and through creation of affordable housing. The financing of this scheme hinges on award of property rights to slum dwellers. Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) is but a continuation of a trend seen over the last ten years or so of viewing slums through a property or housing lens. This trend was first seen in metros like Mumbai where high real estate prices were utilised to redevelop slums to high rise buildings, thereby freeing up lands for infrastructure and real estate development, offering slum dwellers free apartments of 225sqfeet. It was carried forward in schemes of the Central Government like Basic Services for Urban poor (BSUP)in 2005-12 period and RAY is the latest avtar of this evolving policy discourse.

It is evident that in this discourse, the primary need of slum dwellers is seen as housing. The current housing is seen as problematic and the rehabilitation of this housing is equated to the rehabilitation of the residents. Further, this rehabilitation itself is secured through cross subsidisation with the real estate property development, the assumption being that public goods such as social housing can be served by the market, with the State enacting the role of a facilitator. This has distorted the entire idiom of rehabilitation which assumes that removing the ‘slum’ out of housing, through any possible mode is adequate to alleviate life

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chances for these people. The outcomes of such policy have been disastrous for the dwellers .It has generated indirect forms of displacement. (Bhide, Desai ). This view point of slums and the discourse around slum rehabilitation also forms the backdrop of thecurrent research. By using the lens of livelihoods, this research hopes to widen the current discourse and focus attention to the complexity and layers of meaning that places such as Dharavi symbolise and which needs to be encountered by any ‘rehabilitation’ effort. Moreover, it seeks to place the ‘people’ who create such places back at the centre of the discourse as contributors and not as beneficiaries of rehabilitation schemes awaiting doles from the government.

Dharavi, since 2005 has been the subject of a grand scale proposal for redevelopment of the settlement. While the execution of the proposal is still to see the light of the day and is being greatly contested in the city and outside; there are slow but definitive steps taken towards execution of the Dharavi Redevelopment Plan (DRP). These include the Government Resolution for DRP in 2004, its inclusion as an agenda in the State Housing Policy of 2006, the issuance of Town Planning Guidelines in 2009 and now the current steps to redevelop at least one sector as a model for the private sector, whose interest in the project has dwindled in the last few years. This redevelopment proposal is modelled along a view of the settlement as an area of poor housing which needs to be replaced with better housing.

This research is premised on the argument that the primary stakeholders in the redevelopment process are the residents of Dharavi. They have made and shaped the process of settlement and its improvement and the redevelopment into apartments can be a sustainable proposition only if it is in alignment with the aspirations and modes of living of these residents. We thus explore the way different groups have contributed to the process of evolving the settlement, map their current socio economic locations and seek to understand their aspirations for the future. Redevelopment and improvement proposals are analysed with this base. As a mini research, the study does not claim comprehensiveness either in terms of groups that it represents or the themes that have been studied. However, it certainly alludes to several possibilities which such an approach can reveal.

2.2 The Framework of Livelihoods

The livelihoods framework is the main conceptual framework used for this study. The livelihoods framework was first introduced by the participatory research of Robert Chambers. Chambers, on the basis of his long stint of developmental work in rural India argued that most development research did not really ‘listen’ to the poor. The ‘research of convenience’ widely practised in the development and academic world was research that was among many other things based on a compartmentalised view of their realities. The livelihoods framework is thus a framework that attempts to understand the multiple dimensions of poverty and the ways in which the poor encounter the situations that bind them. The framework has been widely used by DFID (Department of Foreign Institutional Development) in its work with poverty. Carole Rakodi applied it to the context of the urban poor.

The following are the main assumptions in the framework-

• Livelihood consists of the capabilities, assets (variously called stores, resources, claims) and activities required for a means of living.(Ellis, ) A livelihood that is sustainable is one which is able to cope with shocks and stress and is able to maintain and enhance the assets and capabilities. The definition of livelihoods thus, focuses

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attention on the myriad activities that households engage in order to make a living. The basic unit of analysis here is the household.

• Capabilities refer to the qualities that members of household possess such as education, skills, strength etc. They are a critical factor in determining options before a household.

• Assets/capital includes both material and non material facets that enable actual options and negotiations. Carney further categorizes capital into physical (land, water, forest), infrastructural( roads, communication etc), financial( monies, savings, investments), social( social networks, cultural understandings and taboos) and human( skills, education)

• Activities used for means of living have both material and non material dimensions. Thus, a woman’s choice of a livelihood activity is not just contingent upon her capabilities but also on her networks and access to information as well as on the socio-cultural understanding of appropriate work for her.

• Another important determinant of livelihoods is the external environment. The livelihood framework shows the ways in which various kinds of external factors at multiple scales (international to national to city and local, market to state and community, events and trends) create stress or shocks or positive impacts for livelihoods. They point to the fragility of survival strategies of the poor and their vulnerability.

• Outcomes of livelihoods can widely vary. DFID classifies these as declining poor, coping poor and the improving poor.

The livelihoods framework has been widely focused on for its comprehensive, people – centred approach. It focuses attention on multiple considerations and convergence between various factors that determine choice of living strategies. It also gives attention to context factors, institutional factors as well as human agency , making it a comprehensive framework. Its critique is linked to the same comprehensiveness of the framework as it makes it too complex and unwieldy for policy formulation as policy tends to be sectoral.

In the current study, the livelihood framework is used as a lens to understand the changing trajectory of life of various groups in Dharavi. The household is viewed as a primary unit where livelihood strategies are decided and the site where outcomes are experienced. The focus is on understanding shifts in livelihood strategies, the reasons behind them and the outcomes produced. Another focal point for the study is how livelihood interfaces with space (home and settlement). Here space is viewed both as a context that shapes livelihood strategies and one that is produced and shaped as an outcome of livelihoods.

2.3 The History of Dharavi

Dharavi as stated earlier is a slum settlement in the heart of Mumbai (which itself as a very high slum population), and is among the 30largest slum settlements in the world. It emerged over the late nineteenth century, expanded rapidly after 1960 and is currently spread over 525 acres of land in the heart of the city. ReDharavi(KRVIA and SPARC) study divides the history of Dharavi into three phases, namely –

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(a) Colonial Phase (16th century to 1900): The key feature of this period was the gradual transformation of an active fisher folk settlement into an informal settlement at the edge of the city. This transformation was enabled by the reclaiming of the islands at Sion , which cut off the inlets and the fishing industry , the location of the city dumping ground in the area and the relocation of abattoir to Bandra. Migrant communities began to first settle here around the koliwada and began to expand as new migrants such as tanners from Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh began to arrive and make this swampy, marshy ground into their homes.

(b) Post independence: Two important processes of the post independence period were i) increasing occupation of lands around Dharavi by migrants from neighbouring states and its emergence as a large slum ii) the declaration of Dharavi as a slum in 1971 through an act of legislature and the provision of basic amenities through the same. The Transit camp that is the focus of the current study was created in 1972-1976 period to house people who had to be relocated due to the laying of roads in the area as well as in other parts of the city. The other critical development of this period is that Dharavi’s geographical location on the edge of the city changed to one that was at the centre of the city due to the northward expansion of the city.

Post 1981: This is the period which witnessed the shift of Dharavi to an industrial hub. The Development Plan of the city of Mumbai, comprising Dharavi was created in 1981. This was a period of increasing recognition to Dharavi in policy. The first of these was the Prime Ministers Grant Project (PMGP) in 1982 which was linked to the then prime ministers special grant of Rs 100 crore ( 100 million) for the development of Dharavi. This was the first clear recognition of the political importance of Dharavi and other such settlements. The PMGP introduced three agendas for development of Dharavi 1) relocation of tanneries to Deonar 2)the up gradation of pockets and their legitimating through formation of cooperative housing societies to which land could be leased 3) redevelopment of certain pockets in buildings. The Slum Rehabilitation Scheme which followed the PMGP in 1997 as a citywide scheme made redevelopment the only option. It took forward some of the work done in PMGP so that nearly 85 buildings were constructed in the area with incentive TDR (transfer of development right) – a fungible, spatial incentive which was largely utilised outside Dharavi. All of these policy interventions meant that the landscape of Dharavi became highly diverse.

The transit camp represents one of the first encounters of Dharavi with the State. About households from different parts of the city were settled in pitches adjoining the railway tracks in Dharavi. A spatial order of straight rows of houses with abutting narrow lanes and public amenities on one side of these blocks was imposed on one part of the settlement which had developed as interspersed settlements in a triangle between Sion, Mahim and Matunga.

Dharavi Redevelopment Plan

The Dharavi Redevelopment Plan (DRP) was the result of ambitious lobbying by a developer- Mukesh Mehta who argued for a comprehensive development plan which would cover the entire area of Dharavi as opposed to the prevalent scheme of Slum redevelopment which engaged in redevelopment in small pockets of the slum and relied on getting its profits outside Dharavi. The DRP proposes the intensive utilisation of land in Dharavi for rehabilitation of slum dwellers and commercial development. The argument is

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that this will lead to more integrated development and benefits for residents of Dharavi and enable them to integrate to mainstream development1.

The key proposals of DRP are:

• The entire area will be accorded a FSI(Floor Space Index) 2 of 4.0. It proposes that this high FSI will lead to a financial model where rehabilitation of slum dwellers and a premium to state government can be cross subsidised from the profits to be potentially accrued from high end commercial development, taking advantage of the proximity of Dharavi to Bandra Kurla Complex, which is emerging as an international finance centre.

• The entire land of Dharavi is divided into 5 sectors to make the plan commercially viable. Each of these sectors take advantage of the central location of Dharavi. Thus. Sector 1 is located along the Kurla –Sion road, Sector 5 on the Bandra link road, sector 2 on the Matunga- Mahim link road etc.

• Each eligible household is entitled to receive an apartment of 269 sq feet free as a rehabilitation package. These apartment buildings will be located in buildings with 30-40 stories. In addition, developers were also expected to contribute to a corpus for maintenance.

• The DRP was considered as a model for redevelopment of large stretches of slums. It was considered as an example of government initiative and so the conditions of consent3, characteristic of other slum rehabilitation schemes was waived in this case.

The DRP has been highly critiqued by academics, planning experts, civil society organizations and residents. One of the biggest reasons for stalling of the project so far is the strong resistance to it from local residents. The resistance to the project has gone through different phases from a large scale rejection to a mode where the project is seen as acceptable but on more favourable terms. These terms include a) award of greater apartment area ie 300 sq feet to all eligible residents b) some recognition of the tenants in the area by extending a provision of rental housing c) detailed surveys and preparation of transport plans. These terms have thus deepened the redevelopment discourse. The missing element is the consideration of current livelihoods and whether these livelihoods can be sustained in a post redevelopment scenario. This research is an examination of the same.

Current Status of DRP

                                                                                                                         1  Mukesh  Mehta  uses  a  term  called  HIKES,  an  acronym  for  health,  income  generation,  capital,  education  and  social  upliftment.  He  argues  that  comprehensive  development  with  utilization  of  high  end  commercial  development  could  translate  into  linking  Dharavi  kars  to  these  developments.  

2  FSI  for  Mumbai  is  about  1  for  the  island  city  and  1.33  in  the  suburbs.  Dharavi  is  part  of  the  island  city.  In  the  earlier  Slum  Rehabilitation  Scheme,  Dharavi  was  considered  as  a  difficult  area(from  point  of  view  of  property  market)  and  most  of  the  incentive  FSI  was  thus  used  as  TDR  in  areas  outside  Dharavi.  

3  Slum  rehabilitation  schemes  in  the  city  have  a  condition  of  70%  residents  consenting  to  a  development  proposal  .  This  provision  is  contentious  as  a  mode  of  expressing  genuine  participation  and  there  are  reports  of  its  vulnerability  to  manipulation  

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The DRP was first initiated as a Government Resolution in 2004. A lot of interest was evinced in the project, as evident from the fact that over100 responses were received to the global tendering process in 2006. The market slump which soon followed has adversely impacted the private interest in DRP4.

The government policy towards redevelopment has changed considerably and with the inclusion of new demands (increase in tenement area, rental housing, and inclusion of community participation principles), redevelopment has become a highly complex assignment.

More than eight years after the DRP was announced, the situation in Dharavi is one of resignation. There is a section which clearly advocates urgent execution of redevelopment; others hope that it will never happen. Recently, the state government announced that the state Housing Board will undertake the redevelopment of Sector1, hoping to stimulate private interest. In the meanwhile, the comprehensive proposal may never happen but redevelopment of some form is inevitable, given the central location of Dharavi and the growing clout of the Bandra Kurla Complex as an economic hub.

Dharavi as an economic hub

Estimates of the scale of economic activity in Dharavi can only be guesses at best due to several enterprises being in the shadow of illegibility. An off the cuff estimate of the Re Dharavi study (op cit) puts the daily turnover at Rs 5 crore (500 million) a day or Rs 1500-2000 crores a year. The presence of industry in the settlement is so vibrant that every second or third house seems to be the site of some or other economic activity.

A survey by the National Slum Dwellers’ federation in 1986 counted some 1044 manufacturing units which included 722 scrap and recycling units, 152 units making food items, 111restaurants, and 85 units entirely working for export, 50 printing presses and 25 bakeries. The survey also recorded 244 small scale units, employing 5-10 persons each and 43 medium scale enterprises with more employees. A later date survey cited in ReDharavi by Society for Human Development (SHED) counts 1700 units of various scales. However all these surveys largely exclude home based industry and that which operates from lofts.The actual extent of industry may thus be huge.

One of the impressions created through these portrayals of economic activity in Dharavi is that of a ‘rich slum’ in the words of while this may well be true, what is equally true is the vulnerability of several livelihoods at the lower end of the spectrum. The discourse of the ‘big’ interests in Dharavi and their attitudes to redevelopment are likely to be different from those who are at the lower end of the spectrum. There is thus a need to understand this economic vibrancy, prosperity from the experience of the residents from across the spectrum.

                                                                                                                         4  From  the  phase  of  expression  of  interest  when  over  100  proposals  were  received,  of  these  10  were  shortlisted  and  asked  to  submit  detailed  proposals.  Only  2  detailed  proposals  were  actually  received.  

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PART III

METHODOLOGY

Dharavi has been a subject of multiple researches, particularly in the aftermath of the declaration of the redevelopment project. Several of these researches focus on an understanding of livelihoods in the area. However in the zeal to counter the redevelopment project and the real estate view of the slum, the researches tilt towards a glorification or romanticisation of enterprises in Dharavi. This research attempts to move beyond to understand the complexities of the relationship between livelihoods and space over a period of time in Dharavi.

3.1 Combining research methods of architecture, urban morphology and sociology

The study takes an intertwining of sociology and architecture as its beginning point. It has been planned as two independent but linked studies, one where sociological concerns are dominant and another where architectural study has taken the lead. The conceptualisation, design and analysis of the two studies have been done jointly by the researchers. This linked but distinct approach was found necessary to bring in the strength of each of these disciplines to provide an in-depth insight into issues of livelihood and space while appreciating the inter-linkages between them. Both the studies have used same groups of participants and tools that have fed into each other. Insights and suggestions have been shared with each other at several midway points.

For the research, four communities/Nagars have been selected which differ in key parameters and therefore cover a wide spectrum of aspects:

Community 1: Broom makers (see architectural/ urban morphological survey of 4 case studies in the attachment), located in the transit camp.

Community 2: Recyclers (see architectural/ urban morphological survey of the 9 case studies in the attachment), located in the transit camp.

Cluster 1: Dhobi ghat, predominately used by dhobis (see architectural/ urban morphological survey of the Dhobi Ghat in the attachment), located in the transit camp.

Cluster 2: Hanuman chowk, predominately used by the Papad Makers (see architectural/ urban morphological survey of Hanuman Chowk in the attachment), located in Sector 4 of Dharavi.

3.2 Research methods of architecture and urban morphology

According to the hypothesis that there are strong interrelations between the intangible social and the tangible physical structures of buildings and space, architectural as well as sociological phenomena have been concurrently explored. The data has been amalgamated and analyzed in order to understand the logic underlying the built environment.

A larger coherent area in each Nagar has been recorded by urban, architectural and sociological aspects. In order to understand the complex relationships of the different elements in the structural hierarchy of the urban fabric, the system has been explored on different levels of scale and accuracy, starting with the study of the microcosm - the smallest

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cell in Dharavi, the space of an apartment. Advancing in scale and complexity the rules of assembly of these small units, the patterns of progressive aggregation to blocks, quarters and Nagars and the interlinkages with various networks (circulation, infrastructure as well as networks of cultural and economic activities, family relations, etc.) has been investigated. A smaller quarter within each Nagar (which is characteristic of the neighbourhood) has been selected to study it in detail: all buildings and spaces of this coherent area and - in order to ensure a representative sample - all inhabitants (as far as possible) have been included. A larger study area may extend over the borders of the Nagars and allow an investigation on topography, extended networks and the relationship to neighbouring districts.

This approach is based on the research methods of urban morphology developed in the late 1950s by the so-called “Muratorian School” (created by Saverio Muratori, 1910-1973) and has so far been applied to historic cities only. It reveals the rules and principles - on all system levels - of the generation and development of the built environment The discipline urban morphology seeks to recognize the driving forces behind the generation of forms. These forces can be identified easily if research methods of sociology and anthropology are combined with those of urban morphology and building research - as intended by the Dharavi ground-up project. The records of architectural and urbanistic research (maps, plans, sections, diagrams, drawings etc) have been superimposed with those of sociological and anthropological research in order to find out how these spheres (studied by different disciplines) interact. A comparison of building typologies from the origin region of the inhabitants and their houses within the megacity Mumbai may show continuity or a change in the spatial organization, the structure and the use of building materials. The reasons for changes has been examined (e.g. a transfer of a house type to a different climate zone, lack of space, changes in family structure or occupation, availability of building materials etc.)

3.3 Research methods of sociology

The key questions which the study asks are:

• What are the contemporary dimensions of livelihood, home and work space and how do they interface?

• What is the historiography of these livelihoods from their native places to Dharavi and to the current moment?

• What are the emerging trajectories of these changes and what do they suggest about the prospects of people driven improvement?

• How do these trajectories link to the current discourse on redevelopment?

The (sociological) study uses theoretical sampling. It is focused on the spatial unit of Transit Camp. Transit Camp is an interesting spatial unit as it is located in the central part of Dharavi. It is part of Sector 2 as envisaged by the redevelopment Project and is a sector where the impact of state actions as well as people’s actions is visible in space. There is no reliable and comprehensive data on the livelihoods and enterprises in Dharavi. Interviews with key informants were used as a means to get insights into the overall historiography of the area.

Combination of research methods: Synopsis and integration of the urban-morphological, architectural and sociological data

Superimposing and merging the data obtained by the different disciplines of research shows how intangible social, economic and cultural structures and the physical structures of the

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built living space interact and add background information on the development of the urban fabric of Dharavi. It also displays the changes in the socio-cultural and the structural-spatial typologies that are related to each other and by which forces these transformations have been driven. This knowledge is essential to design a strategy for future development of the district which ensures a continuity of the habitat. The development can only be sustainable if the structures of a well-organized system are kept and problems are resolved step by step.

Conclusion: Development strategy and “Design Tool” guideline

The final step was to design a concept strategy for a socially responsible structural transformation of Dharavi. The “Design Tool” is meant as a guide for construction projects which will gradually replace derelict buildings, improving the housing quality and comfort, but does keep the integration into the complex urban network of relationships. The guideline will contain building types (including explanations how they relate to existing/traditional typologies) and scenarios for different uses and possible development. These model proposals will be complemented by the design of a development strategy concerning the neighbourhoods and Dharavi as a whole.

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PART IV: FINDINGS

4. Research of architecture and urban morphology: The different scales of the system Dharavi (M.Spies)

The urban structure of Dharavi is regarded as a system and has been studied in different levels of scale (“system scales”):

4.1 The“city scale”

City scale_panel 1: shows the urban fabric and its relationship to larger urban entities and the prominent position of Dharavi within the megacity Mumbai:

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City scale_panel 2: shows the different linkages between the investigated communities and the city through their livelihood:

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4.2 The “Intermediate Nagar scale”

The intermediate “Nagar level scale” shows the central location and the excellent connections within the city of Mumbai. Dharavi is surrounded by train and bus stations, and fullfills all needs for public transportation for its inhabitants.

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4.3 The “Nagar scale”

The “Nagar scale” shows the vibrant and different urban textures within Dharavi. The area “under the lens” (the investigated areas) clearly shows the different patterns of Dharavi:

The transit camp (the broommakers, the dhobis and the recyclers are based there) consits of a very rigid system made by urban planners. The neighbourhoods situated north of “90 feet road” are very organically structured and follow the structural principle of villages (little squares/chowks, surrounded by clusters of houses) They are developed by the inhabitants themselves.

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4.4 The “Quarter scale”

Two clusters (Dhobi Ghat, Hanuman Chowk) and 15 case studies (9 recycling case studies, 4 broom maker case studies and 2 transit camp case studes) have been investigated on different levels of accurancy. They all differ in scale, livelihood and standards of living. (sociological survey, A.Bhide)

The rules of aggregation of the houses and their interaction with various larger networks and structures has been studied (see panel 2). This leads to more detailed information on the development structure, open space network, densities etc. and shows norms (and aberrations /anomalies) in the layout of open and closed spaces.

Quarter Scale_Panel 1: shows the exact location of the investigated communities/ clusters :

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Quarter Scale_Panel 2: shows all important networks, public toilets, hierarchy of streets, temples, public utilities, activity nodes and commercial zones.

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4.5 The “Cell scale”

The individual buildings and their relationship to the surrounding open spaces have been examined through an architectural survey (measurements, descriptions, drawings and photo documentation), shown in the attachment: 9 recycling case studies, 4 broom maker case studies and 2 additional house studies within the transit camp. Specific features have been discovered as a repeating pattern: the use of concrete and steal and the extension of living space (cantileverd spaces) in the upper floors are characteristic for building typologies within Dharavi.

Through the example of the dhobi ghat as a coherent cluster of cells a daily activity pattern has been developed. It shows how vibrant the daily activities are and how the cells/houses are connected with their livelihoods:

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Summary of the architectural fieldwork/research (M.Spies)

It is obvious that the inhabitants have upgraded their houses by themselves without any help from organissations or slum rehbailitation programs. After becoming more established in Dharavi, the families (in all case studies and clusters) have used their money to build their houses in concrete and improve their living conditions in small, but significant steps. Originally, most of the houses were “cutcha” (mood structures), and hardly sustainable.

In most of the cases, it was difficult to find out how the real situation of ownership was. Most of the families have overtaken their homes from their parents, and it is hard to define (some have papers, some not) if it is juridically a legal or illegal ownership. Most of the families extended their houses using each and every little space around them. The borders between public and private are hard to define. We mostly interaced with the housewifes who are nearly all the time at home doing their hous ework and dominate the space during the day.

All case studies (broom makers, recyclers) are situated in the transit camp, and follow a similar pattern: They all have a groundfloor plus one or two storeys above. They all have upgraded their homes (from mood structures to concrete structures All families have extended their homes by vertical and horizontal structures (in concrete and steal). This means less light in the streets and less ventilation, but more living space for the families.

The dhobi ghat is also situated in the transit camp, but in a “special zone”, under the high voltage electricity cables. Actually, it is strictly forbidden to build any structures in this area, Nevertheless, people also encroached this space very close to the railway tracks. The houses are occupied by five dhobi families and families from Maharashtra. During the time in Bombay, I could observe the small upgrading processes which people did by themselves on a very microlevel: they made a small hole in the wall to improve the ventilation, and painted some parts of the cluster in fresh colours. One (Maharashtran) family built a brandnew first floor structure and renewed the tiles on the ground floor. The first floor is rented out now and ensures an extra incmoe for the family. Nobody has a private toilet within the house in the dhobi ghat, so they all rely on public toilets close by (especially women and children). The sizes of the houses at dhobi ghat were the smallest. The private space is very limited, and extensions aren´t possible because of the dense/limited structure of the cluster.

The Hanuman Chowk is situated in the sector 2 off 90 feet road, it is a well established cluster dominated by Maharashtran families and used for Papad making (see sociological study). Nearly all inhabitants have upgraded their homes by themselves . Some families have toilets within their houses and don´t use the public toilets which are close by and currently under construction. The size of the rooms/houses is bigger and varies more than at the dhobi ghat. Many families live on a rental base there and have limited rental agreements, that means that the occupancy of the houses often changes every 11 months.

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PART V (A. Bhide)

5. Research of Sociology: Study of the Livelihoods within the Communities

Interaction with key informants revealed that several typologies of livelihoods in Dharavi are possible on basis of two major parameters- (a) mode of organization and (b) space utilised. Modes of organization include the traditional, family based enterprises, and those with active links to organized economy through chains of value addition .Space utilised for enterprises ranges from forms of work that are home based, those that are factory based and occupations that operate in public space. A matrix of these two parameters is used to identify the four occupations that are studied here.

Form of Organization Space utilized for Work

Home Small Unit/Factory

Public Consolidated

Public Dispersed

Traditional, Family based Broom making

Dhobis

Actively linked to Organized economy

Papad Making

Recycling Shops

Waste Pickers

Four- five cases of participants in each of these occupations are studied in depth through multiple individual or sometimes group interviews. They were selected through a process of developing relationships and their openness to being interviewed. Others were recruited through their networks. Some of these discussions also included members of household who were not actively linked with these occupations themselves. An observation of space of work, homes was a distinct area of study. In addition, Ms Spies also visited the native places of the Dhobis and interacted with their families.

The case studies tried to understand the current livelihood patterns of the households, how these had evolved over time, the factors that shaped these livelihoods, how housing and settlement evolved in relation to the livelihoods and future prospects of these livelihoods for the households themselves. Their views on housing improvement and redevelopment were also actively sought.

Analysis has largely been thematic, discerning key themes from the text of the interviews and comparing them to other cases and experiences. The attempt is to construct a narrative through the interweaving of these case experiences.

The study is a research with limitations of both time and space. One of the most critical limitations is the focus on relatively less organized enterprises and the exclusion of the more medium scale industries. The other limitation is the quality of data that was influenced by the wariness of the residents to repeated surveys and studies in the wake of redevelopment and the inability of the study team to develop relationships to counter the same effectively. The narratives are thus uneven in their intensity. It is hoped that these are adequate to give certain critical insights into the issue.

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5.1 Broom makers

Links with the Past

The Kunchikarve or Makadwala community, which is engaged in broom making, is a nomadic tribe. Its traditional occupation is begging and making brooms. The community moved as distinct groups, scattered in several parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka. They moved from village to village, staying for a few months or even days in one place in temporary huts made of straw. As a community on the move, they were outside the social fabric of the caste system. In times past, the Yerukalas lived in the forests and were satisfied with the forest economy of hunting and gathering. In 1878, the sale of forest produce was strictly prohibited by the British government and the Yerukalas were forced to the plains. The tribes lost everything they had and rebelled against the government, who in turn forced them to settle on small portions of land that were insufficient for survival. This displacement had a detrimental effect on their lives, which led to maladjustment and a loss of self-respect in society.

It is also among the fourteen tribes who were listed as criminal tribes by the British in 1935. This meant that these groups had to regularly report to police stations, intimate them before any move to a different place. They were also the first people to be apprehended in case of any crime. In some cases, they were also bounded in particular places called ‘settlements’. This labelling as a Criminal tribe enhanced the internal organization of the tribe and made it very strong. They had a clear hierarchy, stringent norms of behaviour with members of the tribe and distinct norms for interface with outsiders. There were also two forms of languages in practice- one for community members, replete with secret codes and another for outsiders. Women’s mobility, behaviour, activities were highly regulated in this context.

Livelihood was thus a community enterprise for the Kunchikarves. It had historical roots, was based on several traditions established through years and had communitarian aspects. Individuals had no distinct choice or place in this arrangement. Breeding monkeys and training them for shows, begging, making brooms and baskets and minor crimes were all different aspects of livelihood to be taken up at different points in time and by different members of the household. These were also connected through an intricate fabric through backward and forward linkages. Distancing from mainstream society perpetuated these patterns of livelihoods.

Several households of this community migrated to Mumbai in the 1930s, after a drought. Dastagiri’s grandfather was one of them. Ramanand recalls that when the first generation of kunchikorves arrived in Dharavu nearly hundred years ago, they knew only begging and hunting as primary occupations.

Dastagiri, about 40 years old is from Athani in Karnataka. They are among the initial group of residents who made Dharavi their home. His wife, Kannava is from Sangli, a district in the state of Maharashtra. Her cousin is from Kolhapur. Kannava and her cousin came to Dharavi after marriage about forty years ago. Her husband’s family had already been settled here for many years. Likewise, Maruti Kunchikorve’s father came to Dharavi as a child, he ran away from home along with the group leaving the village. They were joined by several families of this community, many from the village itself and others from different parts of Karnataka and other states. Currently, there are about 110 families of kunchikorves stay in Dharavi.

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Making a New Life

The Kuchikarves made their homes in the swampy area of Dharavi where the current 90 feet road is located. Their houses earlier were made of tin sheets, the entire family stayed together and they had a lot of open space outside which they used to stock material and prepared brooms. Kannava distinctly remembers,” there was nothing here; it was all a big open space. We (as in the kunchikarve families) lived near the 90 feet road of today. From there to here, it was a big maidan (playground)

After the shift to the city, broom making got a boost with availability of raw materials ie leaves and market ie power looms – both in Thane district. In the village, the emphasis was on begging and basket making but in the city, making different kinds of brooms has taken a precedent. A group of them also found a niche in money lending. Already known for their rough ways, makadwalas acquired a reputation for being mean recovery agents. The group in Block 7, however has largely stuck to boom making.

From then till now, Dastagiri and his family are engaged in making brooms. He and his brothers are separated now, but the occupation has continued. Currently, his mother, wife, he himself are all involved in this business. Broom making and begging are ‘Laksmi’ for them and so there is a firm faith in pursuit of these occupations. For example, Dastagiri’s elder brother works in the Corporation as a sweeper. However, he comes back in the afternoon and makes brooms. To date, his mother begs in nearby areas in the evening, as do other women from the earlier generation.

Broom Making

Brooms require leaves and reeds. They (Dastagiri, his parents and elder brother) get leaves from Palghar(in Thane district, about 70 km away but accessible by local train) in a truck. The family makes about 400 dozen brooms in a week.

The small brooms made by them are sold to power looms in Bhiwandi(also in Thane district, about 100 km away). Dastagiri’s family services 3-4 looms. There are no fixed contracts but there is an understanding. The understanding is consolidated through financial relationships. Thus the power loom operators do not pay them the full dues. Brooms are generally sold at Rs 15 per dozen but negotiated to about Rs 12 per dozen if customers are known.

The pattern of business is well set. Leaves are collected around winter. They may be either bought from the market or cut from the trees; the latter is seen as more profitable. Collection of leaves is also done as a group with 3-4 members of each family participating in the endeavour. This is the annual stock. The leaves are stocked outside the house. These leaves are then soaked for a day, then they are made into bundles. These bundles are then tied together, then cut and finally packed into sacks. The entire process takes about a week.

If there are around 1000-1200 brooms, Dastagiri’s mother takes them by train to Bhiwandi. If there are a larger number of brooms, a group gets together and hires a tempo. There is no organized group such as a copoerative engaged in the activity though.

The income from the business is not very clear. All of the women kept on repeating that there was very little money. The price differentials indicate that a family making about 400 brooms a week may be making around Rs 400, inclusive of labour costs. Thus there seems to be really low margins.

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Broom making is seasonal. Monsoons are a time when no raw material is available; they then try out a multiplicity of occupations. Some make cane baskets, using material from old baskets. Women turn to construction work, domestic work, begging. There is a hierarchy in terms of occupational preferences. Domestic work is considered the lowest and the last option while begging is seen as a traditional mandate. As Ramanand observes, education and interaction with other communities which became possible in Dharavi have made several people aware that begging is considered antisocial, hence the emphasis on other modes of earning.

The number of people engaged in broom making has reduced over the years. Earlier there were 70-80 families who used to make brooms. Now it has reduced to 15 -20 families who stay nearby. One of the reasons for the same is availability of raw material. Earlier it was available near the vicinity but now they have to go to the interiors of Thane district, thereby increasing the cost. Further, they have to pay a premium to land owners for collecting grass nowadays. The other threats that they face is the large presence of machine created brooms, using plastic materials which has taken away their individual customers and left them with one product and one market ie the small brooms for power looms.

Changing Life and Space

They used to stay near the 90 feet road earlier. Their houses then were kuccha, made of mud and grass, much akin to temporary houses in villages. The houses were small but there was lots of open space which enabled them to stock materials and work outside. There were no basic amenities such as water, toilets or electricity. They had to walk for water to the nearby Railway Colony. In the monsoons, there was water logging and made moving around difficult.

In the 1960s, the community was shifted to the transit camp. The transit camp was an area that was swampy too, families were given pitches of 10 by 15 feet, on which they were expected to do their own construction. These pitches were designed as rows of huts with narrow lanes between them and with a block of public toilets and water posts for every block of 100 houses. People filled in the swamp and constructed houses of tin. The transit camp housed people from different parts of the city; many of the kunchikarve people were allotted houses in Block 7.

Over time, the houses have been made pucca , using bricks and iron columns and koba floors. Most have also constructed a first floor. The taps have been shifted indoors; every house also has electricity.

Many men in the community are now employed with the Municipal Corporation as sweepers. This entitled some of them to staff quarters, others too have moved on. Some women in the community have also taken formal education, daughter is a nurse. However, in the adult generation, there is no one with more than secondary education. In the younger generation however, all children are going to school.

Current Housing and Livelihood

The job with the Corporation is a stable one and has given some degree of mobility to the kunchikorves. They earn about Rs 25000 per month as salary. Thus, broom making, begging have become secondary occupations. Almost all the households are currently staying in

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houses that have a first floor. These additional floors were constructed in the 1990s. The average amounts expended on the improvements to the house range between Rs 2- 2.5 lakh. The first floors are in almost all cases given on rent to add to the income. In addition to the extra space, the houses have also been made pucca, they have koba or tiled floors, brick walls, iron columns and cement roofs. In the block where the kunchikorves stay, there is a lot of water logging. The floor level has therefore been made higher. This has reduced the height of the lower floor rooms. Each household has a water tap connection in the house. Toilets are located at one end of every block. None of the kunchikorve families have a toilet inside the house.

Families are large and maintain an active linkage with the village. Maruti’s family consists of four sons, two of which are married, with a total of ten people. Maruti is the principal earner. The women are involved in broom and basket making. His sons have left school at a middle school stage. The married sons are engaged in casual employment. Dastagiri too has a large family. The most interesting facet of the kunchikorve group is their reliance on the seniors as the principal earners and hence their headship of the household.

Aspirations

Almost all the Kunchikorve families report a sense of improvement over the past generations. Maruti remembers how his mother has brought him up through begging and how desperate they used to be for food. In comparison with the same, at least one person in the current generation holds a steady government job, though at a lower level. This generation benefited from the transit from the native place to the city which offered them new opportunities for mobility. It also enabled a shift towards education, towards reduction in begging. The prospects for the current generation seem more complex. They are literate but do not possess marketable skills. They are also not interested in traditional occupations. Dastagiri, Maruti may be able to leverage their own job position to also facilitate the entry of one of their sons to the Corporation job but the prospects for other sons are dim.

There is a difference in the perception of redevelopment across the generations. The younger generation aspires for redevelopment into apartments as it represents upward mobility to them. For the elder generation, the apartment is as much or as less an asset as the house in the village, which over the years has been made pucca too. However just as there is no mode of earning possible in the village, similarly a redeveloped Dharavi holds no prospect of betterment of livelihoods for them. Community leaders like Ramanand thus hope that some leader will come to represent the interests of their community which in his words ‘has started improving but is still socially backward and whose livelihood is under threat’.

5.2 Dhobis

Dharavi does not have a traditional Dhobi Ghat ( a place where clothes are washed, consists of channels of water with stone platforms) . A group from Andhra Pradesh identified the nala (waste water channel) flowing adjoining the railway track as a possible site for a dhobi ghat and created one in the 1940s ie before the construction of transit camp. It is said that there were 40-50 families of Dhobis living around this area till about 10-15 years ago. Today, there are barely 6-7 families who operate the Dhobi ghat in Dharavi.

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Links with the Past

The dhobis are from Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh. They belong to Chakali caste, which is classified as a Backward Caste and comprises about 4% of the population in their native state. The group which came to Dharavi , according to Vishaya , is an extension of the group working in the major Dhobi Ghats at Mahalakshmi and Dhobi Talao. They settled in Dharavi to avoid the congestion in the other places. Constructing the dhobi ghat , and organizing a livelihood around the same has consolidated the inter household links among the community. It has meant that there is an almost unbroken line of relationships which stretch from the village to Dharavi.

Anji’s grandfather as well as Vishaya’s grandfather were the among the first generation migrants to come to Mumbai. This must be about 60 years ago.

Making a New Life

When people such as Anji’s and Vishaya’s grandfather came to Dharavi, the construction of the dhobi ghat must have been an immensely important gesture of assertion in the city. It was a time when poor migrants from different parts of the country were coming to the city in search of opportunities and settling in Dharavi. This particular site was a critical one because it is located at a point where Dharavi meets a well- to do residential fabric. Most of the clientele was individuals from this area ie Jain Society. The dhobis went into the area in the morning, collected clothes, laundered them at the dhobi ghat and then dried them on the adjoining railway tracks. Their houses were located around the ghat. The years that followed were years of consolidation, so much so that they even formed a trade association – Durgamata Dhobi Mitra Mandal.

The number of families engaged in this work has significantly reduced over a period of time. Currently, there are only 5-7 families of the Dhobis .They work at the dhobi ghat and stay in a cluster of houses surrounding the ghat. Further, only a few members of these families are now engaged in this occupation.

Changing Life and Space

What brought the dhobis from Andhra Pradesh to Dharavi was the prospect of working in a big city with possibilities of an expanded clientele and the confidence of a skill transferred through generations. The way they have been able to lay claims on space indicates the same.

The consolidation phase brought in many families to Dharavi but it has not been enough to bring in the entire family to the area. Only parts of the family have shifted here. Thus, Venkatesh's brother continues to live in their village and work the fields while in Kanyappa's case, one of his wives is in Mumbai while the other stays in the village. The dhobi group has made few investments in their houses here. In contrast, they have made significant investments in the houses in their villages. These houses have been made larger and pucca. The families in the village are engaged in farming. The land holdings are small, stretching between 2-5 acres but most of them have access to some irrigation, thereby enabling productivity throughout the year. This explains the strong ties to the village.

Another reason for the same is that their space in the city seems to be dwindling as of now. Hence, the reduction in the number of families staying in Dharavi and engaged in laundering. However it is interesting to note that none of the families have actually sold off

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their huts. They have consolidated the structures , made them pucca and now rent them out.

Laundering

The main clientele of the dhobis currently are caterers and mandap decorators ie they specialise in laundering heavy cloth materials used for feasts and other such events.

One member of the family collects clothes from the clients in the morning. These clothes are then soaked in big drums filled with soapy water, bleach and soda where required. Midmorning is the usual time for washing them at the ghat. Washing involves brushing the clothes and then rinsing them multiple times. After rinsing, water is removed from the clothes by wringing them thoroughly and then the clothes are put up for drying on the rail over-bridge or on the railway tracks. The dried clothes are folded and then delivered back to the clients in the evening.

The division of work is highly gendered. The work is organized as a Jodi (couplet). Men collect and deliver the clothes, women soak, brush and rinse. Men are also involved in the rinsing and wringing of the clothes. Drying is usually done by women.

The ghat is used as a collective commons. No outsiders, including the non- dhobi families who now live in surrounding houses are allowed to use the ghat. The ghat is washed once a week, usually on Tuesday, which is also a weekly off as well as a day for the worship of goddess durga.

The tools and materials used in laundering are cheap and whole sale chemicals like soap powder, bleach, and soda. The other investment is plastic drums which are kept in the passage around the houses and brushes. The primary input is thus hard labour, involved in handling heavy clothes, brushing them by hand and rinsing and dry wringing them with hands. In monsoons, the washing is done outside but drying is done in the homes.

The total earnings are about Rs 3000 per Jodi per month. Standing in water for hours together, in all seasons causes considerable joint pain and other aches. Some people also suffer from itchiness, perhaps due to the chemicals used.

Laundering is not considerd an illegal activity and so the dhobis are largely left alone. However, their use of railway tracks for drying is considered to be a nuisance and they often have to bribe the police to be allowed to do the same

The biggest concern for the dhobis at present is the deteriorating quality of the water which makes washing an increasingly difficult proposition. Over the years, the nalla has been converted into a sewage and waste water drain and even the presence of two taps near the ghat is not adequate to clean the flow of dirty water which collects in the ghat. This has meant that individual clients have almost totally disappeared. The only clientele currently are the caterers and that too is seen to be dwindling

Current Housing and Livelihood

The Dhobi ghat and the houses of the Dhobis are almost like an extension of the Transit Camp abutted by the railway tracks.

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5.3 Papad makers

There are three- four clusters of women ie around 100-150 women who make papads in Dharavi. The research team interacted extensively with one such cluster in hanuman Chowk which is just beyond the Transit Camp near the new municipal chawl. Papads are a rolled out patty of varied pulses which are dried and stored. Fried papads are a popular side dish in several parts of India with regional variations in pulses used.

Conventionally, papads were made by women in summer. It has been organized into a year round industry and popularised as an export product. Lijjat and Ganesh are the two most common names in the industry which is organized around home based work for women. The work was introduced in Dharavi about 40 years ago and the number of women involved has only increased since then. Today Lijjat has about 50 women members in Dharavi and an equal number is working with Gaensh papads.

Links with the Past

The households whose women are involved in papad making are a mixed group of households, mostly belonging to the Scheduled Castes and other lower castes. They are originally from Maharashtra, its drought affected regions like Sholapur and Sangli. Shobha came to Dharavi as a young bride from Satara. Sumantai came from Sholapur while Savita came from Pune. The oldest of them like Sumantai have been in Dharavi for the last 40-50 years. Dharavi brought to these families, an opportunity to avail of the immense employment opportunities that Mumbai had to offer. These were distinct from their traditional occupations and were largely based on skills that they had acquired. Sumantai’s husband worked in a textile mill while they are Chamars(cobblers) by caste. He came to Mumbai fifty years ago because he didn’t have a source of income back in the village. They initially stayed with his sister and her husband who took on a job in a mill and also introduced Sumantai’s husband to the same. Gradually, they took a house on rental basis. Shobha’s husband is a driver. Their family has some land in the village but it was not capable of sustaining the many members of the family. Thus, one branch of the family came to Dharavi fifty years ago.

For all of these women, papad- making is a livelihood in case of crisis. Sumantai took up papad making when the textile mill workers went on a prolonged strike in 1982 and earnings were uncertain. Shobha took up the job because her husband is afflicted with polio and hence did not find a good job for many years. The making of papads is thus the women’s response to household crisis.

Women have limited options for pursuit of livelihoods. Even in times of crisis, while there is a recognition that she needs to earn, the role of the home maker is considered a primary responsibility. Further, she cannot take up certain jobs that are considered ‘male’ jobs. Domestic work is considered as the last preference as it involves working in another person’s space. A job which is done from the home, takes advantage of her role as a home maker, enables her to do justice to other expectations of domestic chores and is an extension of her role as the cook of the family – papad making is essentially constructed as a woman’s job. Papad making is thus a continuation of the gendered division of work in Indian society.

Papad Making

The women in Hanuman Chowk are affiliated with Lijjat. For them, work starts early morning with one –two women in an informal group go the Lijjat centre in Bandra and pick up dough.

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There is a vehicle for transport which arrives at 5 a.m but there are days when it doesn’t and then the women go the place by sharing an auto. They collect about 3-4 kg of dough on an average. The women who work fulltime are able to prepare papads of 6-8 kg of dough daily.

The women finish their daily chores and then begin to roll out papads by midmorning in the open area outside the house. Other neighbours who are also engaged in the same job also do the same. Drying is done in the same area. Rolling out papads often involves other female members of the household too. Mothers in law are joined by daughters in law or daughters. Younger members help in drying out the rolled papads on plastic sheets and collecting the dried papads. The timing of the papad making is however, post and pre domestic chores, almost taking on the hues of leisure time engagement.

Papad making, especially of standard size and thickness is not easy. Sumantai learnt it from her elder daughter and it took nearly four years to make papads of passable standard at a fast pace. However, there is no formal training involved, all of the women learn it from others and over years of experience. It is hard work but is not seen as such because women sit down and work.

15-16 papads are rolled out from 200 gm of dough. Thus, one kilogramme of dough makes 75-80 papads. The women are paid Rs 25 per 100 papads. They are this able to make about Rs 100-150 per day, if they make papads from 4 kg of dough or through about 5 hours of work. Those who work for 7-8 hours like Sumantai’s daughter are able to make Rs 250-300 per day.

There are no major tools involved other than a rolling pin and platform and baskets for drying. Open space for drying is however, premium. In monsoons when this space cannot be used, drying requires heating papads on a stove, and therefore yet another commodity at a premium is kerosene. The papad companies pay an additional sum of Rs 10 per kg in the monsoons, keeping this in mind. However, for many women this presents a very real loss.

The earnings from papad making have increased 10 fold in the last thirty years, recalls Sumantai. This has to be compared with the overall price inflation, which has increased - times. Women are aware of this, rolling out papads together, travelling to collect dough and deposit papads gives them opportunities for collectivising. However, Lijjat has countered any attempts at collectivising by not giving dough to women who complain for a week. Thus any dissent is nipped in the bud. Also most of the women engaged in it themselves see this as an extension of their household role and their situation as one of few such options.

Life and Space

With all its gendered limitations too, papad making has helped to sustain families in crisis and many families acknowledge the same. Among the three clusters of women who make papads in the Naya Chawl area, two have some amount of open space while the third doesn’t. Sumantai is one of those. Such households where the degree of dependence on papad income was high and open space was difficult to access; have invested in tin roofs for drying the papads. Namdeo- her husband reports that even households in Shivshakti Nagar where there is no open space have done the same. Tin roofs are precious. Sumantai recalls, ‘If a papad flies and we climb onto a tin roof to fetch the same and something is inadvertently broken, we have to pay a compensation of Rs 100’

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There is a distinct difference in the work culture in Hanuman Chowk and places like Naya Chawl which lack open space. In Hanuman Chowk, women chat up with each other, regale tales of everyday life and woes while they are rolling papads. In Naya Chawl, women work individually, though they sit on the outer edges of their houses, overlooking the narrow passages of the community.

The other big investment made by the women is in kerosene. Sumantai recalls that she used to stock upto100 litres of kerosene for the monsoons in order to dry papads. The drums for storing the kerosene are an important investment for papad making women.

Aspirations

Several of the women research participants worked papads on a part time basis. Savita works to make papads, she is also a nurse. Shobha works part time, now that her husband has begun earning a stable income in Dubai. Sumantai works full time but her pace has slowed down with age and illness. These indicate that due to several factors (highly monotonous work, lack of mobility, lack of adequate returns), papad making is considered as a fill- gap occupation than as a fulfilling one. The tendency is to take it up in times of crisis, keep it up at a slow pace when crisis has passed and to give it up altogether when household economy has stabilized.

Yet there are also women who keep at it, long after household economies have stabilized. Charutai’s husband is a police constable and has a regular income. She however continues to make papads, albeit at a slower pace. The same applies to Sumantai, whose son has started earning and there is no pressing need for her to earn any more. She continues, because as she says,’ a working body is a healthy body’.

Each of these narratives reveals the strengths as well as limitations of this gendered conception of work. Seen much more as a ’constructive pastime’, accessible and acceptable to a patriarchal society; papad making is rarely constructed as an exploitative industry which feeds on home based labour of women and undermines their position as workers .

Women themselves become instruments for perpetuation of the same. The craft is passed onto daughters- in – law but rarely to daughters. Moreover, it is not seen as an occupation of desirable pursuit, only as a last resort. As a result, there are few investments in housing linked to the work. However, some elements are seen as absolutely essential. Thus, Sumantai says,’ we do not want a house in a building. As it is, we are three families staying together; we will only get one room in the building. Also what will we do without this open space? We will be left with no livelihood’

5.4 Recyclers

Dharavi presents many scales of recycling. According to the NSDF survey, the plastic recycling industry in Dharavi is the largest in India, employing about 5000 people. Its turnover in 1986 was estimated to be about Rs 60, 00,000 per year. It also estimates that every day about 3000 sacks of plastic leave the area. The multiple scales of the trade include the ragpickers who collect assorted waste and bring it to the kabadi shops. At the kabadi shops, the second stage of segregation begins and then such segregated waste is collected by larger recyclers of specialised waste such as iron, paper, plastic, glass etc. These large recyclers are based in the 14 th Compound and in Naik Nagar(both in Dharavi too). It is this

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waste which then reaches the factories for actual recycling. The entire work is one where value is added at every step. The focus of this study is on the kabadi shops and the waste pickers – located on the lower rungs of this hierarchy.

5.4.1 Scale 1: Kabadi walas (shop owners)

There are about 10 kabadi shops in the Transit camp area. Each of these has fixed waste pickers from whom they accept waste; they also do the preliminary segregation. Additionally, the kabadi walas also have links with particular shops for waste. Most of the kabadi shops have emerged in the area about ten –fifteen years back. They also have a distinct profile as being a caste and religion wise diverse group. Among the participants in the study, there is a Brahmin, baniyas( trader) and Muslims and Nadars. They range from the forward castes to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in their respective regions. Most of them are first generation migrants and are staying on rent. The Muslim participants, on the other hand are ones who have been in this business for two generations, and are engaged in it as a joint family. In each of these groups, the mode of operation is distinct, as described below.

Links with the Past

A s mentioned earlier, the group of shop owners is diverse but reveals interesting patterns within and across.

Jalalluddin Khan and his brother operate a shop that has been handed over by their father – a business that he developed more than forty seven years ago after migrating to Mumbai from Uttar Pradesh. Their farm land was not remunerative and hence, an alternative livelihood became necessary. Today his father has gone back to the village and he and his brother take turns in staying in Mumbai and operating the shop. Similar is the case with Hussein Khan who runs a shop along with his two brothers. These brothers are originally from Tamil Nadu but like Jalalluddin Khan, they too take turns being in the village and in Mumbai. Akber Ali is from Uttar Pradesh. He migrated to Mumbai 35 years ago ie in the 1970s and runs a solo enterprise.

The other generational group in the business was the Nadars. Madhavan Nadar’s father came to Mumbai forty years ago and started a recycling business. Today, Madhavan and his brother are both running independent shops. The Nadar caste is part of the OBC group and has various segments The Kalla Shanar community to which Madhavan belongs was considered as the lowest division of the Nadar community. They are also known as Servai. . This group are traditionally toddy tappers, generally belonging to the Tirunelveli region. Many members of the Nadar community migrated to Mumbai in the 1960s and found a home and a livelihood in Dharavi with the support of Varadarajan- a noted illicit booze supplier. Thus, when Madhavan’s father migrated to Mumbai, there was a pre-existing network that enabled him to find his feet.

The third group of shop keepers is one that migrated to the city in the 1970s. They are generally belonging to the forward castes, have middle levels of education, and largely operate from rented premises in Dharavi. Recycling is not a traditional occupation. For that matter, none of the shop keepers are from a social group that traditionally dealt with waste. There is a distinction between those who have been in the business for two generations and those who are first time migrants and entrepreneurs and have started business in the 1970s. The earlier generation migrants seem to be poorer, they have large number of dependents,

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have low levels of education and their business is at an average level. On the other hand, the later migrants from the forward castes are doing well in their business. Only one among them – Raju Sharma is doing a little badly as compared to the others who have managed to use the business as a stepping stone to further mobility. In Raju’s case, his being physically challenged may have been a contributory factor towards the same.

Making a New Life

Each of these three groups has faced distinct challenges in making a new life in Mumbai and Dharavi. Jalalluddin’s family used to stay in Worli when his father migrated to Mumbai. He says.”Earlier, we used to stay in Worli. When they broke those houses, they gave us this place. In Worli also, we used to do this work. We are illiterate, so we have no option except to do donkey work.’ This sentiment is shared by Sylvan – Madhavan’s brother too. The work is seen as fit for less educated and poor people. However, these are also people who have a much more extensive encounter with handling of waste. On the other hand, the group from the forward castes does not handle waste themselves. They also prefer to keep their families out of it .Raju, who migrated from Goa looks at recycling as an option because ’There is no alternative’.

Though recycling is seen as a less than desirable business, each of them recognizes that it is economically worthwhile and that its scope is increasing over the years. In fact, it is the prospect of good business that keeps people like Vishwambhar Gupta, who has a well settled son and Pannalal Patel who owns several rooms in Dharavi still in the recycling operations.

Recycling at the shops

The kabadi walas are the classical middle men. They are the link between the individual waste pickers and the large dealers who deal in specialised waste. Most of them deal in plastic, newspapers, glass and iron. The waste pickers who are affiliated to particular shops roam around and collect assorted waste. This is deposited at the shop and separated into items that are wanted and those that are of little value. These separated items are then sold to dealers.

Plastic sells at Rs 10-12 per kg ( a profit of 50%), newspaper at Rs 7-8 per kg( a profit of 35-40%), glass at Rs 2 per bottle( a profit of 50%) and iron at Rs 18 per kg ( a profit of 70-80%). Evidently, there is more money in iron scrap. However, iron is also usually obtained through thievery. Jalalluddin therefore declares,”We are poor but we will not touch haram(obtained through unfair means) ka paisa. I therefore refuse to touch iron.” Most of the shop owners who are doing well; deal with iron. Paper, on the other hand fetches the least profit. Till a few years ago, Jalalluddin entirely dealt with paper. “Earlier, we used to deal only in paper but doing so put us in a state of poverty worse than what we faced in the village. We used to earn only Rs. 2.50 per kg. Now also, I buy at Rs. 2 per kg and sell it at Rs. 3.50-4 per kg. Since the last 10 years, we have started dealing in plastic as well”.

The other key to profit in this business is volume. Being able to store larger volumes of waste requires greater space. The average earnings made from the business amount to rs 750- 800 per day and at least Rs 10,000 per month. They maybe higher in case of dealers in iron scrap.

There is some variation in the actual handling of waste. Jalalluddin, Hussein, Madhavan,Raju all lend a hand to the actual sorting of waste while Vishwambhar,Pannalal and Felulal do not

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handle waste and get the whole job done through waste pickers. This may be linked to their caste identity where handling of waste is considered below dignity. Whether there is actual handling of waste or not, shops remain open from morning to night, so it is long, hard work.

Monsoons are seen to be a bad timing for waste recycling at this stage. This is because; the entire transit camp area is vulnerable to water logging. If plastic bottles are wet, they fetch much lesser price. The price for paper goes even lower.

The scope of recycling has only increased in the last few years. There is an increase in card board, plastic and now e -waste. The number of kabadi wala shops has thus increased over the years. Some of the shop owners who participated in the study have expanded the scale of operations but none to a scale that they have been able to match the big operators in Naik Nagar.

Changing Life and Space

Jalalluddin, Hussein and Madhavan’s families are contemporaries who came to Dharavi Transit Camp when it was laid out. Jalalluddin remembers,” There were huts with mud walls and tin roofs. There was an open ground here and grass used to grow there. It was a khadi earlier and there was muck and pigs all over. So, we could not keep anything in the ground. We have seen a lot of hardships”. Madhvan’s family has also struggled to improve their surroundings.

The critical point in improvement of house and surroundings has come much later ie around 1976. This was the time when people started converting their houses from kuccha to pucca. The process began with modifying the floors and raising it to counter the water logging. Then the tin walls were replaced by brick walls and finally the tin roof was replaced by pucca cement roofs. The pace of improvement differed as per individual circumstances. Thus, Jalalluddin reminisces - We came first but ended up modifying our house much later than the others. Because we have a big family and also, I have to send money back home in the village for my parents, uncle, brother, another brother’s kids and sister and her two kids. The next step for several families has been the construction of a loft, gradually converted to a floor. In the case of the scrap shop owners, this has helped to separate the working area from the living area.

The public stand posts for water were converted to individual taps within houses through shared connections. All houses were officially connected with electricity. The toilets remain public but there are quite a few households, for eg Pannalal, Vishwambhar who have constructed individual toilets within their houses.

This process of improvement has occurred over the last seventeen years or so in gradual steps. The shop owners like Hussein, Vishwambhar have not experienced such gradual developments. They rented improved premises and still continue to operate from such rented premises. They have come into a developed settlement as opposed to the settlement that first generation migrants like Jalalluddin and Madhavan have experienced and struggled to develop.

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Current Housing and Livelihood

If housing is seen as a marker of economic stability, then all of the scrap shop owners are doing fairly well. All of them stay in pucca houses, with a first floor. The shops are on the ground floor and may take up part of the space or the entire room. Each of the houses has an electric meter, water connection and a bathroom inside. Most of them own gadgets such as fan, television, refrigerator, CD player, and even computers in case of a few. Raju, one of the most recent migrants may be an exception as he rents in a small room and works as well as lives there.

The process of improvement however shows varying patterns. Madhavan began improvements in his house fairly early. The earliest improvement was that of a tap connection seventeen years ago when he had to spend about Rs 20,000 for the same. They built a ground floor pucca room about twelve years ago and constructed a first floor - a concrete structure ten years ago. The current house has a shop plus living room and kitchen on the ground floor and a sleeping area on the first floor. With a big family, for Jalalluddin and Hussein, extending the house was a must, though he did it much later than the others due to his large number of dependents. They now have a separate work place ie the ground floor space and a first floor which is shared by two brothers and his family of seven. The house now has an electric meter (almost since 1970), a water supply connection (made five years ago). Vishwambhar does not have a desire to improve current house, though he feels the space is small and constrains his business. He has made investments in obtaining a water connection in the house and an electric meter five years ago. The process of improvement thus seems to be contingent on multiple factors at the household level – a) economic capacity and ability to invest b) need for expansion/ consolidation for either work or life concerns c) extended family concerns/contributions. Additionally, policy that facilitates/hampers the process of improvement and networks with officials or people who can buy policy agreement is an additional requirement too.

Aspirations

The recycling business is a growing business. Each of the operators is sensing the same. The shop keepers observe that the number of big dealer shops have increased, in the sense there are more shops buying iron waste, big cardboard etc. While this has meant stable incomes for all the scrap shop owners who all reported monthly incomes of more than Rs 10,000, the capacity to tap into the growing opportunities differs considerably. Jalalluddin and Hussein, with a large number of dependents are adversely posed vis – vis such opportunities for growth. On the other hand, people like Pannalal(who already has a significant asset base) are well poised for the same.

In spite of this growth in business opportunity, no one among the study participants perceives this as a desirable occupation for their children. Vishwambhar’s son, Pannalal’s son, Felulal’s son are all working in different sectors and are all based outside Dharavi. Jalalluddin, Hussein, Sylvan, Madhavan whose children are young also do not aspire to see their children in this business which is seen as a ‘no alternative’ business.

It is interesting to observe that the people who are upwardly mobile have begun to make a distinction between the residence and the work place. Akber Ali stays in Sion. Vishwambhar’s family has moved to a place in Diva( a suburb of Thane, adjoining Mumbai) while he and his wife continue to stay in Dharavi. In case of Madhavan,Jalalluddin and Raju, the asset building process is much more focused around their village.Madhavan has already built a

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good house in his native palce and at some point , he intends to go back to Tamil Nadu. In case of Jalalluddin, he and his brothers anyways take turns at staying in the village while in Raju’s case, he makes hardly any investment here and his family too is based in Goa.

Redevelopment could prove to be an opportunity for all of them. But for people like Jalalluddin and Hussein, the prospect of redevelopment is one of apprehension. Hussein, by virtue of being a tenant faces certain displacement in the event of redevelopment. Jalalluddin says-What can we do alone? Whatever happens to the others will happen to us. I’m not a big man. Whatever god wishes will happen. Maybe I’ll cut down the amount of garbage that I buy. I’m hopeful that our sons study well and take care of us. If the building is made, then since we have a commercial space, they have to give us a commercial space. They won’t give us a house space. But if the space proves insufficient for our work, then either I will have to cut down on the scale of operations or give the shop on rent and search for doing my work elsewhere. I will also have to find a house on rent elsewhere.

5.4.2 Scale 2: Waste Picker

The waste pickers are the lowermost rung of recycling. As a job on the lowermost rung of an unorganized sector enterprise, waste picking involves long hours of work, no skills, hard, back braking work, uncertain income, with no guarantee of security. It is also interesting to observe that most of the waste pickers are women.

Waste pickers collect waste from many different places and as such have the most direct contact with waste and places of their accumulation such as bins.

Links with the Past

The women who are involved in waste picking are from the most deprived social backgrounds. All of the study participants belong to the Scheduled Castes; two of them have been widowed and do not have any social capital. In case of Indubai, both she and her husband are involved in this work. Sugravi is from Ahmednagar, a drought prone district in Western Maharashtra. She came to Mumbai after marriage and stayed in Masjid( downtown commercial area) in a rented house. Her husband used to sell fruits in Crawford market. After his death about 35 years ago, she shifted to Dharavi . The choice of Dharavi was in pursuit of a new occupation. Shalubai also took to this occupation after her husband’s death; she and her young son are both involved in waste picking. Mangla and Vatsala are from Jalgaon district in Northern Maharashtra, migrated to Mumbai about five years back. As recent migrants, they are still struggling to establish themselves in the city. Waste picking is the only occupation that they have been able to identify.

Back in the village, where most of the waste is organic; waste picking has not been a traditional occupation. It is essentially a product of the city; however it offers a relative ease of entry to new migrants, to women. There are no fixed hours, no particular skills are required, nor is there any requirement of capital. To women who have no command over resources, need to seek an earning and are yet tied down by their domestic duties; waste picking presents one of the few options available.

The women in waste picking seem to be networked. Thus a profile of most of the waste pickers in Transit Camp indicates that they are from Jalgaon district. New women are introduced to the trade by those who are already involved in it.

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Making a New Life

The trajectory of the waste pickers’ lives is very different from that of the early migrants to Dharavi. This is largely because the very context of the city has changed. The migrants of the 50s- 60s to the Transit Camp came to a city that welcomed migrants due to the need of labour. They lived amidst harsh environmental conditions but found options of livelihood that were familiar to them, and also offered new opportunities of mobility. As against this, the migrants of 80s -90s found that options for livelihoods had become more segmented and housing in slums too had become more expensive. Thus making a new life is tough.

Sugravi came to Dharavi 20 years back. By this time, Transit Camp was already filled in. She constructed a kuccha hut below high tension wires of Tata Power near the railway Workshop. After 20 years and with an earning son, she barely manages to make ends meet. The same is the case of Indubai who is in this occupation along with her husband but they are still living on rent in Dharavi Koliwada. Shalubai has not even managed to find a place in Dharavi; she commutes from Pratiksha Nagar which is at a distance of about 5 km from Dharavi. The life of these waste pickers gives an impression that the window of opportunity for betterment in the city has contracted.

Waste Picking

The waste pickers begin their day early in the morning. They begin to do rounds of familiar lanes, and collect waste that may fetch some value from the heaps of mixed waste. They carry a small stick to separate such waste out and then pick it and deposit in their hampers which are carried on their shoulders. Once the hamper is full, it is deposited at the shop to which they are tied. They then move for another round. The pattern goes on till the sun goes down. There is usually an understanding about the lanes visited by each waste picker.

They are paid at Rs 3 per kg of plastic, Rs 2-4 per kg of paper and Rs 12 per kg of iron. The total waste of the day is counted in the evening and payments made. The average income of a waste picker ranges from Rs 100- 150 a day.

Every scrap shop owner has 8-10 waste pickers tied to his shop. There is no formal employment contract but an understanding that gives some stability to both the shop keeper as well as the waste picker. Jalalluddin , for example has waste pickers who have been depositing waste at his shop for more than 15 years.

Collecting waste from bins or at heaps is risky business. It involves competition with other waste pickers, animals like dogs that also frequent the heaps, distasteful looks from passersby and often trouble from the police. They are frequently apprehended for minor thefts. Injuries due to glass, metal are common. Sugravi damaged her leg due to an injury at a garbage heap.

Monsoons are a particularly difficult time. Mixed waste begins to decompose and stink. Recyclable material like paper is spoilt, plastic becomes wet. It is difficult to make a good earning.

Sugravi’s pattern of work is different. She used to work like the other waste pickers earlier but after she injured her leg about 10 years ago, she began to work at Jalalluddin’s shop, helping to sort out the waste. She is paid Rs 100 per day. She says,” I come around 9-10 am. There is no problem here; this is like home. My employers and I are known to each other for a long time. There are no difficulties with work here. I work till about 8am”.The place of work and the

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terms have changed for Sugravi but it has not meant any improvement for her. In fact, the possibility of higher income has been now constrained and now fixed at Rs100.

Changing Life and Space

The changes in the lives of Sugravi and other waste pickers are characterised by fragility and uncertainty. There is no clear upward mobility as was evident in the case of scrap shop owners. Earlier, it was a hut but now we have made it in a pucca house. A kuccha house has no value. It is located below Tata power and they have told us that if it breaks, then it is not their responsibility.

Current Housing and Livelihood

Of the five waste pickers who participated in the study, four stayed in rented premises. This was in spite of the fact that Indubai, Shalubai have migrated to the city thirty five years ago ie close to when the scrap shop owner families like Jalalluddin and Madhavan migrated to the city. These rented premises in Dharavi Koliwada and in Pratiksha Nagar cost around Rs 1000 per month. As tenants living on contracts of 11 months at a time, they lived with constant insecurity. Additionally, they could never add to or improve their living environments. Vatsala and Mangala have young children who attend school; a new contract every eleven months affects their schooling badly. Another aspect linked to their tenant status is that they have no visibility in the city. All documents such as photo pass, electricity bill, and water bill are in the names of owners to whom they have to pay in cash every month. In a city where citizenship is highly contingent upon documents and proofs, the tenants carry a high burden of invisibility and are thus bereft of claims to myriad services. It is evident that in all these families, asset building is a far flung process.

Sugravi is the only one among the waste pickers who lives in her own house. She stays in a house that she has improved over the last twenty years. However the house is located under the high tension wires of Tata Power and is thus risky not only from point of view of the environmental hazards but also the risk of eviction due to an illegal status.

Aspirations

All the five waste picker households are clearly quite poor, barely managing to make ends meet. Their living conditions are characterised by constant insecurity of multiple kinds. The fragility of their livelihoods is such that any small shock can impact on their lives adversely.

Yet, all of them are struggling against these adversities. Shalubai brings her young son to work. Vatsala, Mangala have three and four young children each but they are struggling to send them to school and foresee a better future through their children. In case of Sugravi, her son has already grown up, has married. She was able to educate him only till 8th standard due to their circumstance but she has ensured that he has moved out of waste picking and is involved in a more skilled and better earning job ie ironing. She still needs to earn because the son’s family is also big( 3 children) but she sees her life on an improvement mode from where she was when her husband died suddenly, leaving her with no economic support and a young child to bring up.

There is no talk of aspirations, though. They struggle with hope for a more secure future. Even though four of them stay in Dharavi, redevelopment holds nothing for them. In fact, as

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tenants, they stand to lose their homes and perhaps their livelihoods too in a Dharavi redeveloped into towers, where their landlords will assert their claims to free homes.

PART VI:

TRACING PATTERNS (A. Bhide)

This section analyses the cases described earlier according to themes. In the first part, we trace the patterns of livelihoods and develop an understanding of the same. In the second, the attempt is to look at how livelihoods and spaces have changed over time. The third part focuses on the question of the interconnections between these livelihoods and the criticality of Dharavi as a space for their continuation. Finally, we take note of their current concerns and how the discourse of redevelopment aligns with these concerns. We also attempt to delineate some elements of an alternative discourse focused around livelihoods.

6.1 Patterns

Caste as a marker: Since the introduction of the caste system in medieval India, it became a marker of occupations pursued by social groups. In the villages, the caste system defined both social and economic relationships, hierarchies in a rigid and elaborate manner, leaving very few options for individuals or households to act differently. The system was particularly unjust for all the groups at the lower end of the hierarchy. With no access to education, these traditional occupations and skills associated with the same; the terms at which they were valued in the social system were the only options. The gradual destruction of this social fabric of the village through colonial development created far reaching changes. For the backward castes, which possessed small, unremunerative plots of land and depended on their patrons for a secure livelihood, this change meant a compulsion to shift to other places and pursue alternate occupations. This is what the shift to the city meant for the first generation of migrants to Dharavi – the Dhobis, the Kunchikarves and the Dalits. On coming to the city, they all tried to pursue what they knew best – their traditional occupations. The city offered an expanded arena for these occupations. Clientele became more diverse, there were possibilities of expansion, new modes of negotiation and possibilities of moving up. Most of the first generation migrants thus experienced a positive movement. The Dhobis found expanded clientele; the kunchikarves were welcomed into a formal government job that offered security. Their children were admitted to schools, they began to interact with other social groups in more secular arenas, learnt new skills and thus, the intensity of caste as a marker of economic and social relationships definitively reduced. However, three generations after the arrival of these first migrants, the situation of these households is also circumscribed within particular limits and caste is not the only but one of the most important elements that defines these limits. Thus, only a handful of the Chakali households have been able to leave laundering and enter other occupations. The younger generation of the Kunchikarves does not see a prospect in broom making but has few other options. For the women waste pickers who are Dalits and recent migrants, more than two- three decades in the city have only offered a chance to survive, they do not seem to have progressed much in term of life prospects. They are adversely impacted by the cumulative impact of being low caste,

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uneducated, poor, and with few networks in the city. They are not engaged in a traditional occupation but in one which has a strong association with the same.

1) Gendered options: Women are a category which as bearers of tradition, have experienced the least change in choices of livelihood strategies. In the case of the Kunchikarves, the men have moved to jobs as sweepers in the Municipal Corporation but the women have continued with broom making and begging to some extent. The value of ‘Lakshmi’(Goddess of Wealth) attached to begging is obviously one way in which this tradition is perpetuated. Women’s livelihood choices are highly controlled not just by traditional occupations but also by their role as home makers. Their earnings are seen as supplementary whether it be in recycling, papad making, broom making or in laundering. Even when men and women are both involved in the same occupation as in the case of the Dhobis, the women are involved in the work while the men are the face in the market, collecting and returning clothes. Forms of work which are linked to public space such as laundering and waste picking at least give some visibility to women’s work. On the other hand work that is linked to household chores such as papad making is seen as ‘time pass’ by their family members .As one moves higher up in the social hierarchy, the taboos on women’s work seem to increase. Thus, none of the women in case of the kabadi shop owners were actively involved with the enterprise; it was not considered acceptable work for them. Yet, women’s small earnings play a vital role in the family. The case of Sumantai, who took to papad making in family crisis, is a vivid illustration of the same.

2) Segmented: The livelihoods studied here are highly segmented. The value added at each step of the production process is low. To illustrate, the margins at the level of waste picking are about Rs 100 per day at an effort of about 5-6 hours; they increase to Rs 500 per day at the level of kabadi walas. The substantive increase happens at whole sale shops.The waste pickers are only aware of their immediate next level, the kabadi shop owner only knows thelarge shop owners. The entire chain of production is not visible. Similarly, in the case of papad making women, they are barely able to earn Rs 50-60 per day while papad industry makes a profit of 150-200%. Such segmentation has several impacts, Firstly, it creates several chains of labour, dependent on the higher chain that make forms of livelihood available to people. Secondly, it undermines the value of labour and reduces it to productivity cost, without building in welfare or reproduction costs. Thirdly, it makes labour at the lower strata invisible by pushing it to sites such as homes, wandering around streets etc. Finally, through segmentation, processes are made labour intensive but low value. Kalyan Sanyal discusses how contemporary globalization has produced new exclusions of labour. Segmentation of labour is what makes a place like Dharavi possible. In many ways, Dharavi is the spatial equivalent of several coexisting lower end labour chains.

3) Brush with illegality: The myriad occupations that exist in Dharavi are largely extra legal and have some or the other negative interface with law. The Dhobis dry the washed clothes on railway tracks – an extra legal act. The recyclers – waste pickers, shop owners alike have an ongoing threat from law –the former due to their roaming of streets and hence association with crime, the latter because shop owners because of the possibility of their connivance with thieves in melting of metal scrap. Broom making is not illegal but begging is considered a criminal offence. Besides the Kunchikarves still

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suffer from the stigma of an ‘ex criminal tribe’ in the eyes of the police. None of the industries that operate in Dharavi have licenses. It is one of the factors that reduces cost of production and makes such production in informal ways a necessary element of contemporary society.

Besides these grey legal zones in concern with occupations, the residents of Dharavi are in a constant tussle with the law due to their occupation of land itself. Though Dharavi is a declared slum, it is not considered a legal settlement. The amenities and infrastructure provision by the government is highly inadequate and is constantly supplemented by residents own efforts to up grade . Such efforts put them on the other side of the law. The brush with illegality places the Dharavi residents in an ongoing relationship with the Corporation officials and police. The threat of legal action paves the way for regular haftas 5 . It also creates a need for developing relationships with bhais( local goons) and political parties for protection. A newly developing settlement is constantly vulnerable to legal actions; the vulnerability in the case of Dharavi is reduced from day to day to occasional skirmishes. Yet it remains in the background as a constant reminder of the ‘illegal’ ity of this vibrant township. 4) Commanding Space: Each of the occupations studied here presents a distinct use of

space within the home and outside for the purpose of livelihood. The papad makers prepare the dough inside the house but the making and drying of papads happens outside the house. The small open spaces between lanes and houses, the temples have created the mix of partly shaded (for working) and partly open (for drying) spaces necessary for the women. In rainy seasons, papads are made and dried at home. The waste pickers have made the street their work place. The kabadi shops combine residential use with the shop, often with the outside room or the lower floor being used for the shop and the inner one or the first floor being used for residence. The separation is flexible, though. Thus Raju uses almost his entire structure for the shop and lives amidst it. The broom makers use the extended roof of their structures to store the materials. The outside room with open doors is converted to a verandah and used to separate the sticks from the grass, shred them and bind them with thread. The dhobis had to command the nala and the space in order to make the occupation possible. The proximity of the house and the washing place is also an element that is critical to the business. Each of these cases defies the linear categories of residential/ commercial use that are used in planning and architecture. Here, every inch of space –within and outside the house is functional. Further the command over the outside space, which may not be owned, is as critical to the occupation as the space within the lived structure which is owned.

6.2 Changing Livelihoods, Changing Spaces

1) Generations of Livelihoods: The livelihoods studied can be presented in a temporal

map. The first generation of livelihoods is one that is associated with tradition, with skills

                                                                                                                         5  Haftas  can  be  understood  as  regularly  paid  bribes.  The  systems  of  collection  of  haftas  from  people  and  its  distribution  to  various  levels  of  officials  haftas  are    well  entrenched  within  various  categories  of  extra  legal  occupations.    

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and products that were also produced in the villages. These include the broom makers, the dhobis and the potters (who were not part of the study). These occupations had to be considerably modified to suit the city context but considerable old ways continued. The second generation of livelihoods emerged as food industry began to grow in the 1980s with increased participation of middleclass women in the workforce. Thus, different food products began to be developed in Dharavi , some through ready to eat products and some processed foods. The papad makers are a product of this time. The third generation of livelihoods is one that is connected with the economic changes after the 1990s.This is the time when several textile, export leather production units and home based production began to take root in Dharavi. The other industry which grew in this period is recycling which is associated with the increase in the volume of industrial wastes generated in the area. A key characteristic of the livelihoods post 90s is the active linkage to the city economy and the emergence of non resident operators and medium size industries that began to see the advantages in the low production costs in Dharavi and could manage its risks. In the contemporary period, some of the traditional livelihoods continue but are facing considerable threat and prospects of their survival are dim.

2) Improvements of Habitats in response to improving livelihood: As discussed earlier, each of the occupations studied have their own distinctive interface with space within and outside the home. Households have tried to adapt and improve these spaces in accordance with their needs. The Dhobis are the best example of this. Their use of waste water and location of houses are an example of community led development on the fringes of the Transit Camp. Over the years, the Dhobis have been able to consolidate their housing. The Dhobi ghat however has fallen into bad straits. There are now too many factors that dirty the waters of the nallah and these are beyond the control of the Dhobi community. The location of taps near the ghat is not an effective help. Hence the reduction in the number of Dhobi families. The rest of the Transit Camp reflects the government touch in terms of its lay outs, alignments, rows of houses. However, the broom makers and the scrap shop owners have adapted this housing within fixed plots to their own requirements over the years. The most obvious change is the expansion of space by addition of a first floor. The conversion of houses to pucca, the shift to individual taps, and the use of electric meters are some of the other changes. With this expansion of space, the ground floors are now used as work spaces. The space abutting the lane is also used for storing of work related materials and to work. Naya Chawl is an example of partly community led development. Here the proportion of open intersection spaces is much more and there is reason to believe that it is perhaps the papad making women who have asserted the retention of these spaces and not allowed them to be overtaken by building extensions. An interesting aspect to note is that there are two critical points of improvement in housing – one is the individual tap connection and the second is the extension of the house to include the loft. Both these have been big ticket expenditures and have occurred only over the last fifteen years ie after Dharavi emerged as a central location and the government initiated the up gradation programme under PMGP. There are some individual differences in terms of the exact timing but there is broad uniformity in the same. These changes allude to the expectations from government policy. Irrespective of the actual performance of the up gradation programme, it was

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able to reassure people of the safety of their habitats and they undertook the up gradation of their homes themselves.

3) The connection with the village: While Dharavi of today is vastly changed from the Dharavi of yesteryear , a marshy, swampy land prone to regular flooding; it is evident that for many of the groups studied, Dharavi is not the focus of their asset building ,it is the village. There are two clear divisions along this parameter. Those who have some land prefer to maintain a live connection with the village and invest in assets there. This includes the Dhobis, the people like Jalalluddin –the scrap shop owner. Those who don’t have remunerative land holdings like many of the Kunchikarve families are in a dilemma, they have consolidated their house in the village but the village does not offer them any productive option. The Dalit waste pickers are first generation migrants to the city. However, they have left their village and have nothing to go back to. The connection with the village is important; it gives Dharavi kars a sense of identity. However, this identity has both positive and negative dimension. People like to go back to the village only when they have consolidated their lives and when they have something or someone to go back to. In Jalalluddin, Anji’s case, it is land and family. In case of Raju, it is only family. In case of Maruti Kunchikorve, it is only a house and in case of Shalubai , there is nothing. The assets in the village offer some form of security in the wake of uncertainties in Dharavi. This has both material dimensions as well as non material ones. Thus even though Jalalluddin has to send money to his family back home, he is also assured of support in times of crisis. The connection with the village has long been seen in terms of push –pull factors. However, there is very little work on the continued and evolving relationship with the village post migration. The current study indicates that the village very strongly lives in the lives of the migrants, even three generations after the move. Also this connection has economic facets and not just emotive ones.

4) Contemporary Dharavi and nature of opportunities: The first generation of migrants like the Kunchikarve and the Dhobi families found Dharavi to be a very difficult place. They had to put in immense struggle to make a place for themselves. Living was drudgery filled – collecting water, repairing house, coping with water logging, absence of amenities. However, these migrants found several economic opportunities that promised improved lives. The Dharavi of today is a settlement with improved amenities, there are municipal and private schools, dispensaries, shops, restaurants, houses are now pucca, roads are passable, and some of them are even motorable. There is moderate connectivity to public transport. Water logging is much reduced. The nature of economic opportunities has changed considerably. From a more or less struggling and improving community, Dharavi is now much more heterogeneous and has developed complex layers of economic and social stratification. The non resident industrial operators and investors in properties are at the uppermost end of this scale. Then there is a small contingent of people who work in secure jobs and stay in the settlement. This is followed by a large section of people who live and work in Dharavi and have experienced some consolidation within circumscribed limits like the papad makers or the kabadi walas. The people on the lowest rung of this hierarchy are those who stay on rent and those who work as jobbers in the textile, leather or recycling

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factories. These people are extremely vulnerable to economic and housing displacement.

6.3 Dharavi as a Mosaic of Livelihoods

1) Interconnections between livelihoods: Each of the livelihoods studies does not exist in isolation. It has several interconnections with other livelihoods that are pursued in Dharavi. The clearest example of this is presented by the recycling industry. At least three layers of the recycling industry are located in the area. The industry has prospered in Dharavi due to the presence of several other industries in the area. Estimates of the Corporation put the G(North) administrative ward , where Dharavi is located as the ward with highest waste collection in Mumbai, both the volume of waste and the potential for recycling are thus high. Besides the involvement of thousands of workers at multiple levels in the industry; it is also able to generate several ancillaries such as transport( small tempos, hand cart pullers, trucks) and reprocessing (shoe repair, clothes repair, processing of oil from coconuts etc).Other industries such as garments and leather that are prominent in Dharavi also have several interconnections within Dharavi. Another important interconnection is the demand for services by these industries and residents that engage several households. Thus, there are estimated to be a few hundred khanwalis(canteen operators) in Dharavi . Similarly there are plumbers, electricians, building contractors, caterers etc.

These interconnections make Dharavi an economically strategic location, a place where kabadi walas like refuse to leave, even when they have a choice.

2) Interconnection with wider city fabric: Dharavi grew at the edge of the island city of Mumbai as its shadow city. It housed the dumping ground, was the site of illegal liquor brewing that was supplied to the city, where hazardous industries like tanneries could be relocated. Contemporary Dharavi has a different, more direct linkage with the city fabric. Its geographically central location at the cusp of public transport nodes make it economically competitive. The creation of the Sion- Bandra link en route to the international airport makes it viable for location of export outlets. Proximity to the Bandra Kurla Complex has resulted in heightened property prices. The focus of the linkage to the city is most evidently on land. The proposal for redevelopment is a clear outcome of the same.

However, Dharavi also has other links to the city fabric. The readymade food industry in Dharavi serves the entire city. The bulk of services such as house maids, laundering, ironing, milk supply, vegetable vending to neighbouring localities like Sion, Matunga, Mahim are provided by Dharavi residents. After 1990, the city shows a decline in manufacturing and an increase in services. Dharavi is one of the most important sites of manufacturing in the city which has taken on an unorganized turn.

3) Multiple scales: An analysis of the different modes of livelihoods reveals that they operate at multiple scales. The recycling industry has a huge presence in Dharavi; at least three levels of the industry till the large scrap shop owners are located here. The scale of operations makes it at once easy to set up business (knowledge available, presence of other supportive firms) as well as more competitive. Trade associations help to negotiate and improve terms. There are others like the broom making industry which is fairly low key. Dharavi is the production house for this industry for which materials are procured from one part of thane district and the marketed in another part of Thane .Even though the number of families

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engaged in broom making is over a hundred, it does not have trade associations, engages only one community, there is no diversification and because of the increasingly difficult times, ancillaries have not been developed. The story of the Dhobis is similar. The papad making industry with a fixed market and relegated to a production by women in homes has even lesser visibility in the area. They have very little negotiation capacity with respect to the terms of their employment.

6.4 Current Concerns/Conclusions (A.Bhide)

A review of the various cases and the underlying themes reveal a story of mixed outcomes. They assert that Dharavi is indeed a vibrant economic hub, it is a place that has been shaped by the residents of the area and that Government policy has played a minimal role in the development of people. They also indicate that the housing and environmental conditions in Dharavi of today are vastly improved from what they were in 1900s when the settlement began.

The story of livelihoods is more complex. There are some which are in a decline eg – Dhobis, broom making; there are others which remain unchanged eg papads and there are others that are expanding in their scope and prospects such as recycling. The decline or rise of particular occupations is linked to the prospects of households because as seen in the study, though occupations have changed over time, the pace of these changes is slow. Further, there seems to be no expansion of a stream of livelihood that can absorb the mid education, semi skilled profile of the current youth. The relevance of these previous livelihoods is thus high.

Certain factors have enabled Dharavi and its residents to reach the current point of development. There are others which have inhibited further development. It is with this backdrop that we discuss the current concerns articulated by the study participants.

Factors that have enabled the improvement of livelihoods in Dharavi are – a) the tolerance and security that the settlement received from evictions b) the proximity to railway nodes c) the proximity to middle class localities d) coexistence of multiple communities e) will to survive and improve f) proximity to planned services g) possibility of and co existence of varied norms.

Factors that have inhibited development include –a) absence of critical infrastructure b) absence of financial institutions c) lack of comprehensive development policy that responds to strengths of people

Current concerns include –a)privatisation of services, lack of key infrastructure, invisibility of workers, retail, pressusre for commodification of land.

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RESEARCH/CASE STUDIES (M. Spies)

8.1 Recycling case studies

8.2 Broommakers case studies

8.3 Transit Camp Case studies

8.4 Dhobi Ghat Cluster

8.5 Hanuman Chowk