A half-day tour of the Dharavi slum in Mumbai is a fascinating and eye-opening experience. The slum, the largest in Asia and home to more than a million people, is a place of hardship and poverty, and is also one of humour, enterprise and activity with an annual turnover of around US$ 665 million. The main industries are recycling, pottery, soap making, embroidery and leather tanning. On your tour you can also visit the residential area of the slum where real people live their lives in truly staggering conditions - narrow dirty lanes, open sewers and cramped huts. In a city where house rents are among the highest in the world, Dharavi provides a cheap and affordable option to those who move to Mumbai to earn their living.
We book this tour through Reality Tours who do not make a profit from your visit. 80% of profits after tax from these slum tours are donated to local NGOs and in May 2007 it opened a Community and Education Centre.
To read residents own stories about their lives in Dharavi go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/06/dharavi_slum/html/dharavi_slum_intro.stm
To avoid offence to local inhabitants, please note that photography is not permitted on this tour. This fascinating tour gives an real insight into another side of Bombay. This tour is not for everyone - it is smelly, dirty and at times rather disturbing but an amazing experience nonetheless.
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