A Slum Tour in Mumbai…What’s your Take on that?

Everywhere on the ground lay sleeping natives-- hundreds and hundreds. They lay stretched at full length and tightly wrapped in blankets, heads and all. Their attitude and rigidity counterfeited death.

Mark Twain, on a nocturnal drive through Bombay in 1896.

“A three-year old orphan remains unattended to because her mother “cannot” attend to her…This is the reality in Mumbai’s slum life. Struggling everyday to survive, in these slum houses, there are at a minimum 6-8 people living together in cramped up tiny spaces. Clean water is not accessible. Lighting…of course –its not there! To make things worse, there is permanently a very bad smell in the air. 

There are no ‘hygienic latrines’ and the only option is to use ‘hanging latrines’, which are dangerous – because sometimes a child can fall into the latrine and get injured. 15-20 families have to share one sanitary latrine. So, how can you remain healthy after using this water?” This is the reality – This is THEIR REALITY (SLUM-DWELLERS)

“Young children from Mumbai’s slums are also left exposed to smoke for long hours during the day and their mothers are unable to attend to them as they are cooking inside the house. Most of the time, they have to cook inside the room, as there is a lack of space in the slum. So, their cooking and living area is the same and they “live in the same smoke”, “eat in the same smoke” and “cook in the same smoke.

As a result, their eyes swell and they get a headache, but these are inevitable problems. Moreover, their houses are structured where smoke travels from one house to the next. So, if someone cooks in one house the smoke goes to the next house. This exposure to smoke is one of the leading causes of death in children younger than five years living in slums! Even babies who are barely even two years old do not even have strong enough lungs to fight this and die. Breathing in all this smoke is one of the main reasons for developing diseases like cancer or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).”

   

Mumbai is known to be one of the top 15 cities globally and is India’s fiscal capital and Maharashtra’s capital city. Yet, there remains some obscure shadows over this alpha world city. Being the economic hub of India, it is also home to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which is the 12^th largest stock exchange in the world!

It is the melting pot of many communities and cultures as people from all across the world and different parts of Asia choose to visit or/and live in Mumbai. People from the city are mainly Marathi’s, Gujarati’s, Parsis, Christian’s, Zoroastrian’s, Muslims, Punjabis, Sindhi's, Jews, Buddhists, Konkani’s, Jains and Sikhs. 

From having a small population of Bene Israelis who migrated from the Gulf, Mumbai is also home to many South East Asian communities and Europeans such as the Portuguese and French. In addition to that, it has the most number of millionaire’s and billionaires among all other cities in India. There is a lot that this city can boast about!  So, when our city has so much to offer, why would anyone want to go on a slum tour and “pay money” and for a three hour long tour? 

Of course, every country is different, but looking at its negativities is CERTAINLY not any way to explore its culture!

Mumbai is not devoid of slum shanties these and cement houses built in unplanned manners. The number of slum-dwellers is expected to be over 9 million with limited access to civic amenities. Many live in close proximity to bus or even train stations. Of course, slums are not without issues- child labour, women’s safety and diseases.

 As a visitor to this slum or any other slum you will find yourself a victim of financially supporting small communities in a responsible way unlike blindly donating materials.   

Dharavi is known for being Mumbai’s largest slum and the third largest in the world! FACTS!!! It was even recognised in the movie Slumdog Millionaire.One of the best ways to explore Dharavi slum is to go to Reality Tours – the NGO offering tours through Dharavi. They assert that 80% of their profits from the tour are reinvested into the community- mainly for the schools for the kids that they run. 

 So, in all humanity is this something that you want to see… – the wretched situation of a human being who does not get enough to live a dignified life? Poverty cannot be used as a tourist attraction and people need to realise that. 

However, whatever it is – curiosity always gets the better of us and our mind always tends to wander. Look at all of the reasons why we travel and why we do case studies…  Can’t there be any better ones? Tourists who visit cities are interested in understanding the plight of affairs that slum-dwellers of a city go through. 

It certainly sparks a considerable debate around an uncomfortable moral dilemma. Poverty tourism, slum tours, reality tours or even adventure tours. Are tourists also supposed to keep their eyes shut? What’s your Take?