Reality Tours & Travel was founded in 2005 with the aim of providing authentic, thought provoking local experiences through tours and to use the profits to create change in underprivileged communities. This work began with our signature ‘Dharavi Tour’, designed to dispel negative stereotypes of slums and provide a realistic overview of the challenges and opportunities in these areas. We have since expanded to offer a wide range of tours across Mumbai and Delhi, and multi-day tours to South India, Rajasthan and
the Golden Triangle. The success of these activities has been recognised with major international responsible tourism awards in the past few years. Reality Gives was formed four years later in 2009 with the vision of a world where underprivileged communities have equal access to opportunities and resources. We seek to do this by providing young people from underprivileged communities in India with high quality education and experiences.
WELCOME TO DHARAVI Dharavi is a settlement of about 1,000,000 people spread across 2.16 km2 (or just 0.85 square miles). This space is divided into 84 settlements (chawls, nagars, wadis or colonies) each with its own identity. The density of Dharavi’s population is about 570,000 people per km2. This is 20 times more dense than the rest of Mumbai, which is already one of the densest cities in the world!
THE HEART OF MUMBAI Dharavi is home to many of Mumbai’s drivers, domestic workers, garment manufacturers, garbage collectors and office workers. Without these people India’s commercial capital would simply cease to function. One clear example of the slum’s importance to the ‘Maximum City’ is that Dharavi recycles around 80% of Mumbai’s plastic waste.
A HIVE OF INDUSTRY Dharavi is home to around 5,000 different businesses and 15,000 different hutment factories. The annual production of goods here is estimated to be anything from around US$665 million to US$1 billion. Daily factory wages are between Rs.150 and Rs.250, normally for 10-12 hours work.
ASIA’S LARGEST SLUM? Termed ‘Asia’s Largest Slum’, Dharavi is probably the largest in terms of prominence and notoriety rather than population or land area. A key indicator of how Dharavi is different is that in many slums typically 20% of the population is in work, and 80% are unemployed. In Dharavi, it is the other way round.
LIFE IN DHARAVI More than half of Mumbai lives in slums, with an average household size of 4.5 across the city. In Dharavi that figure is around 6. Contrary to popular perception, crime here is actually lower than many other parts of Mumbai due to the strong sense of community and the fact that over 50% of policemen and women live in Dharavi and other slums in Mumbai.
THE DIVERSITY OF DHARAVI People from all over India live in Dharavi. Roughly a third of the population are Tamilians, and another third are from Maharashtra. Other states represented in Dharavi are Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Rajasthan and Bihar. The population speaks more than 30 languages and practices over 6 religions in the 27 temples, 11 mosques and 6 churches of Dharavi.
THE PAPAD AREA 3.5 tonnes of food are produced every day in Dharavi, though it’s rarely mentioned on the label! This food includes papads, made by local women from between 9:30 am and 4.30 pm every day. Outside of these hours they are expected to do their housework, prepare meals and look after their family. They are paid Rs.20 per kilo and normally make about 4-5 kg of papads a day.
REALITY IN THE COMMUNITY At Reality Gives, we believe where you start should not determine where you finish. Our work in the community focuses on providing education, viewed locally as being one of the most effective tools to break the cycle of poverty. We share this belief in the power of education, and focus on creating quality, accessible programs to give young people opportunities to grow, develop and learn.
KUMBHARWADA POTTERY On the southern tip of Dharavi is Kumbharwada. The Kumbhars are a community of potters originally from Gujarat and were some of the earliest settlers in Dharavi. Around 1,200 families live here in an area of 10.5 acres. During religious festivals such as Ganapati and Diwali, the potters are responsible for producing huge numbers of the idols and other religious items which adorn households across Mumbai.
100% of the profits from sales of this book go directly toward funding the work of Reality Gives. Change can only be created in our communities through your involvement and support. Thanks for making our work possible!
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Photos by Rupal Shah, Gareth Kingdon, Andreas Grosse-Halbuer, Tom Parker, Vanessa Lewis, Indranil Sarkar, Nitesh Square, Luana Conti
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