Acknowledgements This document has emerged from a partnership of disparate groups of concerned individuals and organizations who have been engaged with the issue of exploring sustainable housing solutions in the city of Mumbai. The Kamala Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture (KRVIA), which has compiled this document, contributed its professional expertise to a collaborative endeavour with Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), an NGO involved with urban poverty. The discussion is an attempt to create a new language of sustainable urbanism and architecture for this metropolis. Thanks to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) authorities for sharing all the drawings and information related to Dharavi. This project has been actively guided and supported by members of the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) and Dharavi Bachao Andolan: especially Jockin, John, Anand, Savita, Anjali, Raju Korde and residents’ associations who helped with on-site documentation and data collection, and also participated in the design process by giving regular inputs. The project has evolved in stages during which different teams of researchers have contributed. Researchers and professionals of KRVIA’s Design Cell who worked on the Dharavi Redevelopment Project were Deepti Talpade, Ninad Pandit and Namrata Kapoor, in the first phase; Aditya Sawant and Namrata Rao in the second phase; and Sujay Kumarji, Kairavi Dua and Bindi Vasavada in the third phase. Thanks to all of them. We express our gratitude to Sweden’s Royal University College of Fine Arts, Stockholm, (DHARAVI: Documenting Informalities ) and Kalpana Sharma (Rediscovering Dharavi ) as also Sundar Burra and Shirish Patel for permitting the use of their writings. SPARC would like to thank those of its primary donors who support its work in Dharavi, including the production of this book, RE: Interpreting, Imagining, Developing DHARAVI. The donors are: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in the U.K.; Sir Dorabji Tata Trust in India; Katholishe Zentralstelle für Entwcklungshilfe e.V (MISEREOR) in Germany; and the Rockefeller Foundation in the U.S.A. We also thank Slum/Shack Dwellers Federation (SDI) which has consistently supported the process, including publication of this work. Most of all, special thanks to the people of Dharavi who shared their experiences with us and helped with on-site data collection. Aneerudha Paul, Director, KRVIA Sheela Patel, Director, SPARC November 2010, Mumbai Credits SPARC KRVIA Design: Abhinav Shaw Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres, Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture Editing: Rani Day 2nd Floor, Marathi Municipal School, and Environmental Studies, 1st Khetwadi Lane, Mumbai 400 004 Vidyanidhi Marg, Off 10th Rd, Editorial Team: Sheela Patel, Aneerudha Paul, Sundar Burra, Bindi Vasavada, Juhu Scheme, Mumbai 400 049 Sujay Kumarji and Kairavi Dua. Tel. +91 22 23858785, +91 22 23865053, Tel. +91 22 26700918, +91 22 26208539 Photographs: Abhinav Shaw, KRVIA & SPARC Archive. [email protected] [email protected] www.sparcindia.org www.krvia.ac.in 3 Contents Introduction: Building a World Class Model for Slum Redevelopment 06 SECTION ONE: DHARAVI STORY 09 Locating Dharavi 10 Land of High Returns City of Enterprise 14 Leather Textiles and Tailoring 18 Food-Making Pottery 22 Recycling Surgical Thread 26 Kite Factory Gold & Jewellery 26 Printing History: Before Bombay there was Dharavi 28 SECTION TWO: MAKEOVER OR TAKEOVER? 34 Development For Whom? 36 Process of Resistance Impact! 53 SECTION THREE: AN ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY 54 Grouping Together: 60 Co-operative Housing Societies 61 Chawls & Nagars Ambiguous Clusters 63 Existing Zones: Commercial & Residential 64 SRA Buildings & Private Lands Public Toilets 66 Roads & Alleys Institutions 68 Multi-Functional & Residential Open Spaces Strategy to Prepare a Master Plan 70 Objectives of the Master Plan Strategy: 72 Strengthening of Roads Strengthening of Open Spaces 74 FSI & Density Plans To Each its own Scenario 76 Scenario 1 Scenario 2 78 Afterwords: Working Together, Learning Together 80 5 The truth is that the drive to redevelop Dharavi is propelled by the very large profits that developers and the State Government have their eyes on. Poor Introduction people in urban settlements have mostly been neglected in the global South, BUILDING A WORLD CLAss MODEL FOR and there is an increasing gap between the planned, formal city and its informal shadow. The irony is that official cities draw heavily on the labour and SLUM REDEVELOPMENT vigour of slum or shanty residents but very rarely do cities support these workers. by Sheela Patel, Director, SPARC To the State, Dharavi (like Kibera in Nairobi, one of Africa’s largest slums) represents a long-standing development nightmare – for which it has not been The metropolis of Mumbai is often called Slumbai or Slumbay with probably the able to develop any successful policies for upgradation and improvement on largest number of slum-dwellers in the world (over six milion). Dharavi – really an scale. To the global financial institutions, it is, briefly said, a gold mine. informal township within the metropolis – is one of the world’s 30 mega-slums and Asia’s largest. Spread over 525 acres, it presents a very vibrant mosaic of But new policy is not forthcoming from city planners to reduce the risks of tens of thousands of small businesses and hundreds of thousands of residents lending to the poor, nor is there enough money available to replace these self- of different religions, castes, languages, provinces, and ethnicities, dependent built shelters. Global investors don’t have the knowledge or the will to manage on one another and the city socially, culturally and economically. Its enterprising decentralised, incremental investments which communities in Dharavi have residents manufacture garments, leather goods, foods and pottery, besides evolved into a fine art. running a flourishing – and unique – recycling business. There are silver linings to the clouds, however. The Government of Maharashtra, Dharavi has literally risen from the marshes. First the houses had stilts, then originally in a state of denial about the discontent of the residents, now accepts the land was reclaimed little by little, then built up brick by brick. In other the imperative to lend an ear to their voices. Of course, Dharavi residents and words, it is a testament to the survival instincts of the poor – and the success dissidents don’t want to block development or investment per se; they simply of incremental development. Bit by bit, the poor developed the land, raised want to ensure that it will fuel progress for them as much as for the city at large. families and neighbourhoods, then a full-fledged township as generation after generation went to work. Official support for these incremental processes Dharavi has a lot to teach us about how informal settlements generate were signalled when the city provided urban infrastructure and services such solutions for the demands of small businesses and housing. Flexible work as clean piped water, sewage systems, roads and social services in the mid- schedules,home-based occupations, enterprises of various scales that eighties. interconnect with residences – this is the reality of how the poor not only survive, but thrive without handouts or charity. Dharavi was recently in the centre of a storm – with clouds of different development plans hovering overhead. Global capital investment companies, The intention of this book is to suggest guidelines for future redevelopment of local real estate developers and the State Government have all been viewing slums – a redevelopment that is not thrust upon the residents from outside, but Dharavi as a privileged gateway to Mumbai’s transformation. The question is: one that is rooted in a local and participatory environment. Will these clouds disperse? When I speak at workshops and conferences, there are many discussions Current redevelopment proposals seem to view Dharavi as a green field on about ‘world class’ cities. If we work it out right, Mumbai has the potential to which fresh structures and thoroughfares are still to come up – ignoring develop a ‘world class’ model for slum redevelopment through consensual and the deeply-rooted habitat that already exists. If these proposals are left incremental upgrading. All the required ingredients are there. Only the political unchallenged, it could threaten the lives and businesses of many residents. leadership must have the courage to go ahead. We believe it can be done. Now, suddenly, outsiders are drawing up plans without the involvement of the residents of Dharavi, plans which seem to devalue everything the local residents do and have done and which do not take into account their long-term investments and overall interests . 6 7 ONE DHARAVI STORYSECTION Locating Dharavi In relation to Mumbai, Dharavi is remarkably well located: a triangular land in the heart of the city, it is served by railway lines on two sides and bounded by the Mahim Creek and its mangroves on the third. The Mahim, Matunga and Sion train stations mark three corners; the arterial Western Express Highway passes along its northern border. As Mumbai developed over the years and stretched northwards into the suburbs to accommodate the steadily growing population, Dharavi, which started out as a fishing village located on the northern tip of Parel island, was inevitably drawn into the centre of the city. Dharavi is in the neighbourhood