Dharavi

Today we visited Dharavi, one of the largest slums in India with a population of over one million people. We met with Vinod Shetty from the Acorn India Foundation to learn about waste management in Dharavi. We all had the chance to learn about Dharavi from the National Geographic film, “The Real Slumdogs,” we watched in class. It was an incredible opportunity to meet with Mr. Shetty and talk to him about his experiences with the Acorn Foundation after having watched the film. Mr. Shetty is a human rights lawyer and has taken an active role in social movements for over 25 years. Only 8% of the workforce is involved in trade unions, and Mr. Shetty is very involved with them. He believes that his organization could bring attention to the workforce in India, which is very important to the survival of the Indian economy. Mr. Shetty mainly utilizes his family and friends as volunteers and to fundraise for the organization. Funds are used to run the community center, pay the salary of one staff member, and the rest is used for basic organizational costs distributed to the various social projects within the Dharavi project. Like most people in this line of work, Mr. Shetty told the group that his motivation for working on the project is because he wants to change the world for the people living in his own city. For him, the only way of living is to be involved in social movements working with people in poverty.

The Dharavi project trains rag pickers in proper methods of waste handling, segregation, and recycling. They use social-impact programs in an effort to change the living conditions of the more than 100,000 rag pickers that segregate waste in and around landfills in Mumbai for a living. There are a lot of negative connotations surrounding slum dwellers as perceived in the movie Slumdog Millionaire. The people living in the slums are there because they don’t have any other choice and the struggle for survival forces them to fend for themselves. Even though they are shunned by much of society, they are fighting for their right to live with dignity. Thousands of tons of waste are processed by rag pickers each day, making this work force essential to the daily operations of society.

Several programs and workshops conducted by the Dharavi project are used to educate and engage young children in music and other arts. When we first got to Dharavi, we visited the Acorn Foundation’s main hub, where two little boys greeted us with friendly smiles. They played their drums and sang for us, and truly sounded amazing. We were all very moved by the performance, and I think that was the moment everything from the last few days really hit me. Watching them perform in all of their innocence made me realize how much potential so many of them have. It is rather unsettling knowing my life is vastly different from theirs, and that all of their potential may go unnoticed or underutilized if social enterprises, like Acorn, fail to succeed in instituting change.

We had the opportunity to walk through the more industrial area of Dharavi. The organization of each industry was not at all what I expected. Even though everything is incredibly dirty and the quality of living is unlike anything we are used to, I was surprised to see how organized each mini industry was, and how efficient their operations were. From an occupational health perspective, I immediately noticed how little to no safety precautions were utilized. Workers do not have gloves, goggles, shoes, or any form of personal protective equipment. The water that runs along the street is stained blue in some areas from dye leaking out from one of the businesses. The noise in some areas was very loud and no workers had any protective ear equipment on. I can only imagine how many occupational injuries take place in Dharavi, and I am sure workplace injuries cause a lot of death and disability.

After having walked through the slums in E. Andheri and now Dharavi, we have witnessed poverty that many endure every day. With so many people living in such a small area, it seems overwhelming that any one non-profit organization or social enterprise could even begin to know where to start and actually make a difference. Especially after the class discussion we had this evening, I am not feeling too optimistic about my ability to design any business model that could actual institute social change and be sustainable for years to come. I know there isn’t much literature available on how to successfully be a social entrepreneur available to teach students, but maybe it is that uncertainty that drew so many of us to take this class. I still feel like I have a lot of unanswered questions and unexplainable emotions, but we are only 3 days in, and each day we learn a little more.