Carlin Carr, Mumbai Community Manager
In early November, the Duchess of York and Prince Charles visited Mumbai. The royal couple had many stops on their itinerary, but one of those was a very special project we featured for this issue last year, Mumbai Mobile Creches. For decades the organization has been quietly working in the most invisible parts of the city — the construction sites where families from poor villages around the country make their home temporarily to engage in this work for months or years on end. Mumbai Mobile Creches provides a school and daycare for the children of these families, and has expanded into working to help them receive proper medical care and check-ups.
Mumbai is the type of city that makes you want to do something. When I first came in 2008, I had the same feeling. I started an English language program at a shelter for 20 homeless boys. This year, I decided that the kids needed to see the world beyond their very rudimentary makeshift home on the beach, right next to some of the fanciest five-star hotels in the city. We launched a crowd-funded campaign on Indiegogo called “Send Mumbai Street Children to Aurangabad” to send them on a trip outside the city. In a few days, we had met our goal, and within a couple of weeks, we doubled it! The project has inspired us to start a bigger “fresh air” trip campaign for the kids to visit their national treasures, enjoy the lovely nature of India’s countryside, and bond together in a new environment.
There are many initiatives around the city working to improve the lives of children living in poverty. Anukruti, a project launched by Austrian architect Martina Spies, has found a unique way to bring playgrounds into informal settlements. She has designed handbags with the leather workers of Dharavi and is using the proceeds to fund the small-scale playground projects. The initiative gives work to the stitchers within Dharavi, while also providing much-needed spaces for children to jump, hang, crawl, and slide.
On the subject of Dharavi, the growing body of literature on Asia’s best-known slum has a new addition. Earlier this year, “Dharavi: The City Within” was released. The book, edited by Joseph Campbell, includes articles on everything from how the slum accesses water to its mafia bosses. One of the most interesting pieces, written by Kalpana Sharma, a well-known journalist in Mumbai, is on the history of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project. The book stitches together a very vibrant portrait of its industrious, entrepreneurial residents and the challenges they face as the city seeks to “improve” the conditions on this much-coveted piece of real estate. “Dharavi: The City Within” is a must-read for all researchers interested in getting a broad perspective on the issues around redevelopment in one of India’s megacities.
Photo credit: Dell Inc.