From Periphery to infinity.....

After the bumpy and visually appealing ride to “Chor bazaar”, I am back with another interesting aspect of Bombay, the place I am now taking you to be popular in the world as the largest slum and is known as “Dharavi”. My title signifies Dharavi if one were to trace the history of Dharavi. Dharavi is an area sandwiched between Sion and Bandra. Sion or sheev in Marathi literally means the outermost area. Bombay back than had Sion at its outer tip though today it has become the central part of Bombay and so has Dharavi grown from being the periphery of Bombay to reaching the stage of infinity. Some quick facts about dharavi-

• It’s a perfect blend of different cultures, with people of different origins setting the place up.
• Migrants from Gujarat established potter’s colony, and Maharashtrian tanners of the Charmarkar caste built the leather tanning industry. Artisans, from Uttar Pradesh, started the ready-made garments trade. The other large influx was of the Tamil Muslims and Nadars.
• A majority of the residents of Dharavi today belong to the dalit caste but various other castes and tribes are also present. Minorities include Christians, Muslims and Buddhists.
• Apart from traditional pottery and textile industries in Dharavi, there is an increasingly large recycling industry, processing recyclable waste from other parts of Mumbai. Financial services are significant; the district has an estimated 15,000 single-room factories.
• World’s best quality leather bags and goods are stitched or made in Dharavi as it provides skilled and cheap labour, this bags or goods are then labeled and branded in the respective countries, but they are born and nurtured in Dharavi.
• The inhabitants who lived in Dharavi have generations of their ancestors living in Dharavi, so it’s not just the poor but the rich inhabitants also want to live in the same place for the love they have for the place.
•  Dharavi has always been very popular in all the blockbuster bollywood films from the cult Deewar to Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay! . Where several child actors were from the Dharavi slum.  
• Other famous movies were Parinda ,Black Friday ,Traffic Signal , Rajeev Khandelwal's Aamir (2008), and various other films based on the Mumbai underworld. Several films by Mani Ratnam based on the experiences of Tamil immigrants to Mumbai have depicted the Dharavi slum, including Nayagan (1987) and Bombay (1995).
• Dharavi features prominently in Danny Boyle's Oscar winning 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, where several of the child actors in the film are from the Dharavi slum.
• Dharavi has severe problems with public health, due to the scarcity of toilet facilities, compounded by the flooding during the monsoon season.
• As of November 2006 there was only one toilet per 1,440 residents in Dharavi. Mahim Creek, a local river, is widely used by local residents for urination and defecation, leading to the spread of contagious disease. The area also suffers from problems with inadequate water supply.Nevertheless Dharavi is still an integral part of Mumbai......