Category: Dharavi

Profile of a slum: Dharavi, Part 3

30 January, 2008 (09:57) | Dharavi, Ecosystems, Slums, Theory | No comments

Yesterday’s post commenting on the Economist’s lengthy year-end article about Dharavi (Asia’s largest slum) had reached the point of asking, how can one bankrupt a slumlord? 

It takes the output from the government factory: laws and money. 
 
It has become safer for two main reasons.
 
Laws.

[1] One is that in 1976 the state government gave […]

Profile of a slum: Dharavi, Part 2

29 January, 2008 (12:22) | Dharavi, Ecosystems, Slums, Theory | No comments

As begun in yesterday’s post, the Economist’s lengthy year-end article about Dharavi (Asia’s largest slum) vividly and sympathetically show us life for Mumbai’s poor, and also illustrates so many of the principles about which I’ve previously posted.
Slums are where housing has outrun public infrastructure, and since there ain’t no such thing as free infrastructure, […]

Profile of a slum: Dharavi, Part 1

28 January, 2008 (10:20) | Dharavi, Ecosystems, Slums, Theory | No comments

Over the last six months I’ve written extensively about slums generally, and Dharavi (Asia’s largest slum) in particular.  Last week the Economist, which seems eerily to write about subjects on which I’ve posted, did a lengthy year-end article on Dharavi, from the slum-dwellers’ perspective.  Even as it vividly captures Dharavi, the piece also illustrates many […]