Millions of people live in the slums of Mumbai. Houses (if you can call it a house) are built here from waste, mainly from plastic. However, people here are not discouraged, remaining cheerful and optimistic. Getting here, tourists are first shocked by the living conditions, and then they ask the question: “Is it too often that I complain about the conditions of my life?”
Excursion to one of the houses
A seven-year-old boy named Mohammad Gujarati spent his whole life in the slums of Mumbai. He gladly shows his place of residence. Instead of doors - dirty clothes hung on ropes. Entering this plastic barn, you can feel a sharp unpleasant odor. Decorative flooring replaces the ground. The walls and ceiling are covered with plastic bags that protect households from heavy rains. The boy’s father has been living in this building for 5 years with his wife and two children.
Summer in this city lasts all year round; locals do not know what cold is. The inhabitants of the barracks wash themselves in the sea, they cook food on the street. The head of the family works not far from his home in the same slums where a small factory for tailoring jeans is organized. For his work, he receives 2.5 thousand rupees, which is approximately 2.25 thousand rubles. More than 300 rupees, the family is forced to pay the rent of their housing.
Slum dwellers themselves believe that they live in good conditions and do not complain about life. Despite the dirt surrounding them, daily hard work, poor-quality food, people here are smiling, welcoming and positive.
Life in cellophane housing
Not all residents live in such "luxurious", by local standards, conditions. Only 4 people live in Mohammad’s housing. In other houses, people live for 10 people in a makeshift home. The living space in this case is 1 square meter per person. In such a small room parents, children, grandparents are crowded. Some are forced to sleep outside in the rain, because under the roof they simply have nowhere to sleep.
When the family gets too big, teenagers at the age of 16 are sent out. They have to find a job and rent their own housing for rent. While young people do not have money, they have to spend the night in the open air, hiding in a plastic bag. They mature very early in this place in India.
In the slums of Mumbai there are also rich people who open factories here. If you believe the statistics of local authorities, in the midst of the garbage mountains, 13 thousand small factories and 5 thousand workshops work daily, sewing clothes, leather accessories and making shoes. All products are fakes of famous European brands. Each morning, the Indian slums of Mumbai are visited by wholesalers who take ready-made clothes and shoes for sale.
Locals say that even Russian businessmen visit such clandestine factories, making bulk purchases there. Later this product appears in expensive and fashionable boutiques in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Just imagine how secular lionesses buy fake Italian-made boots sewn by an Indian boy from slums for a large sum of money.
We are great!
In the slums of Mumbai, 40 percent of the city’s population lives. This is about 12.6 million people. Most of the population (60%) are Indians, 30% of the townspeople are Muslims, and 10% are Christians.
Slum houses are made not only of plastic garbage. Some homes consist of torn rags and tarps, less often of plywood. It's hard to believe, but such huts are even two- and three-story.
In addition to the stinking smell of decaying wastes that are brought into the slums from all over the densely populated Mumbai, the smell of rotten eggs is constantly in this outback. This smell does not bother the locals, and visiting tourists get used to this environmental situation after a few days of staying here.
The Mumbai slum area is a large landfill. Waste is brought and dumped into a ditch, where once there was a river. Plastic garbage, scraps and other waste rot in the sun for years, nobody is going to clean them. And people live nearby, children run around, cook food. Among the improvised streets, streams flow between the sheds, where residents relieve themselves with others, without hesitation. Since food is cooked outdoors near flammable debris, slums often occur in slums, resulting in a large number of victims.
Despite all these horrors, people living in the slums of the city claim that everything is fine with them. This is what one local says about his life.
“I have nothing to complain about, what a sufferer I am,” laughs the local resident Vishnu Kapoor. - I am full, eat daily, have clothes and even a mobile phone (indicates a Chinese nameless model). My wife lives with me for several years and loves me. My children believe that I am the best father in the world, and in everything they try to imitate me. I have no debts for the house and loans. No bank will give me money, because it does not want to contact the inhabitants of our area. I do not eat meat, do not drink or smoke. Of course, I dream of a better life for myself and my family, but I understand perfectly well that in this life everything needs to be achieved with hard work. Without zeal, nothing will fall from heaven. I am against theft, earn money should be honest. I hope that in 2 years I will move to a better area, where the walls of the houses are made of stone. ”
Slum Beggars
In addition to a terrible stench and a depressing look, random beggars are waiting for random tourists in Mumbai. Walking through the districts of the city, visitors will certainly have to face them. If you give them a small amount of money, they will certainly be indignant and ask for more. It is quite difficult to get rid of them, because they will be on your heels and persuade you to give some more coins.
Beggars in India seem to be attracted to white people by a magnet, they reach out trembling hands and demand money. Cases when the surrounding beggars unceremoniously robbed tourists in a crowded slum area are not rare.
Infrastructure in the poorest areas of India
On the endless streets where the poor live, their schools, mosques, churches, manufacturing, bakeries and factories meet. There are two types of schools - private and public. Private schools operate on a paid basis, for a student you have to pay about 250 rupees ($ 5).
The Dharavi slums in Mumbai are considered the largest in India. In the center of this place people live more wealthy than those who live on the outskirts. The cheapest rooms are rented for $ 3 per month. Some do not even have such housing, and people have to live in boxes. Some sleep right on the roads. Surprisingly, they look quite neat, despite spending the night on dirty and dusty asphalt, in the midst of scattered rotting garbage.
Life with a smile on his face
After viewing the photo of the slums of Mumbai (India), it becomes obvious that you will not meet so many smiling people anywhere. Beggars living in unsanitary and unbearable conditions simply glow with happiness. Despite the trash that is scattered all over the street, the huts themselves are very clean. Residents constantly do the cleaning of the room and wash themselves. They brush their teeth on the go. Women walk in clean colorful dresses; men also try to wear clean, washed clothes. White people who take photos of slums in Mumbai are not welcome. At the sight of a lens directed at them, many residents swear, they can even throw a stone at a tourist.
After showing the film Slumdog Millionaire, tourists visit the most creepy places in Mumbai every day. Such popularity does not delight local residents. Tourist groups are composed mainly of wealthy people. Visitors look at the poor, like animals at a zoo, taking photos on life, death and love in the slums of Mumbai.
Men in these places earn money for their families, women do household chores and raise children. There are no lazy people here, even children work from an early age, helping parents with what they can.
Building for laundresses
There is a special slum in the city called Dhobi Ghat. This is a shelter with about 700 families. The inhabitants of the house manually wash the linen for the whole city. Laundresses are those people who belong to the lower caste of the population. But there are very happy and satisfied citizens. For example, a 12-year-old boy named Raj, who works in the laundry room, is glad that he has a job. He dreams of following in the footsteps of his father, who also worked all his life, washing clothes. The young Hindu believes that working in the office is fine, but if all the residents are sitting at the computer, there will be no one to provide people with clean clothes.
Dangerous neighborhood
Towards evening, flocks of mosquitoes flock to the slum area. Residents, defending themselves against this scourge, are rubbed with crusts from citrus fruits. Many shacks are located near the sea, and if a strong storm begins, buildings can be washed away with water directly with people.
Some houses are built a meter from the railway, where trains often pass. Little kids play fun on rails, without even thinking about what they can fall under the wheels of multi-ton technology. The noise from the knocking of wheels at night does not bother anyone; people have long been accustomed to such conditions.
Reason to think
In Russia you can often hear that our country is in last place in terms of living. One who says so has never seen life and death in the slums of Mumbai. Of course, you should always strive for the best, but it is in the poorest areas of India that you can understand how life can be enjoyed without money and at the same time be a happy person.
Many of our compatriots have material difficulties, they have loans, mortgages, hard work, problems in the family. Try to forget about all your everyday troubles, hug loved ones, work out with children, call your parents, and you will realize that your life is not at all as terrible as it seems.