DEVELOPMENT AND RESETTLEMENT OF DHARAVI

Today  Dharavi is known as Asia’s biggest Slum.  When we hear about Dharavi, immediately our minds shabby looking slums with rotten smell with uncleaned surrounding.  But the fact remains is that Dharavi making great contribution to Mumbai and even other parts of the country.  Dharavi gives greater contribution for the sake of cleanliness and recycling of wastes for other parts of Mumbai to become clean in the surrounding. 

Dharavi have wide range of recycling units from bottle to plastic, papers from anything to everything.  Thousands of people engaged in segregating various household wastes to Industrial waste and it again recycled here.  Large number of work force especially unskilled downtrodden labourers engaged and making their day to day livelihood.  The whole Mumbai’s gain is Dharavi’s loss.  Dharavi giving great contribution in recycling and reuse of the products and giving great benefit for the environment also.  The people are engaged these perennial work without any support of either NGOs/ govt. or other agencies. They are making their survival on their own.

Now the govt. is planning to remove Dharavi slum under SRA schemes and going to make a great make over for Dharavi.  There are lots of answered questions remains about Dharavi and its people.  What about the resettlement scheme ? There are large scale of cottage industries existing in Dharavi. How and where  they are going to  relocate? Whether the government and other NGOs are ready to extend employment guarantee for the whole people who are engaged with various recycling and other activities? How the govt. better utilize the skill and labour of these scavengers and other small industrial communities with a ‘human touch’. In the name of development, whether this exercise going to just a land grabbing. It also need to review the whole  SRA policy as in the present form it largely benefiting builders than the actual tenants.  The sudden displacement through large scale development create instability and  also affect the law and order of the state as well

Let us hope the Govt. of Maharashtra and other agencies will not bulldozed the energy and spirit of Dharavi in the name of development in the days of replaced and displaced democracy.  The state and centre need a clear roadmap planning and implementation of various projects at Dharavi for a sustainable development of Dharavi.  Govt. and NGOs need to work together at micro level in human resettlement as well as the sudden unemployment problems for the poor and downtrodden.