inequality | toothpicnations

The foot bridge to Dharavi

Inequality is increasingly becoming a global issue, but it is more apparent in rich cities like Mumbai – the world’s 12th richest city. According to the statistics from 2016, about 55% of the city’s population lives in slums, or areas of extreme poverty that lack the basics such as clean water and electricity. Mumbai is home of the richest in India, yet it also has largest slum population in the world. ( N.B. The world’s most expensive private residential home is the 27-storey Antilia located in Mumbai’s Cumballa Hill, and it belongs to Mukesh Ambani, costing of between $1-2 billion.)

Dharavi is not only the largest slum in Mumbai, it is also one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with over one million people living in an area of just over 2.1 square kilometres/ 557 acres. It became famous after it was featured in Danny Boyle‘s Slumdog Millionaire in 2008.

Took the commuter train to Dharavi with our guide from Reality Tours

I understand that a lot of people feel discomfort with the idea of visiting slums, and they consider it as poverty voyeurism. However, I believe that it is important to understand why these slums exist and how they function. Actually the Dharavi slum is a microcosm with its small business economy estimated to be worth US$ 665 million a year, so I don’t think we can turn a blind eye to the inhabitants and their contribution to Mumbai’s economy.

There are several companies that run the Dharavi slum tour; I chose the popular Reality Tours which states that 80% of its profits would go back to the community through its NGO, Reality Gives. Started in 2005, Reality Tours began with an idea of conducting educational walking tours of Dharavi, and over time, it expanded its operations to other Indian cities. Most of the Dharavi tour guides grew up in the slum, so they know the maze-like narrow alleys like the back of their hands. Photography is forbidden inside the slum, but participants can download photos from their website after the tour.

Craftsmen working outside of the train station

The 2.5-hour tour turned out to be eye-opening and educational. We visited a soap factory, a plastic recycling factory, watched a potter making pottery, and a community centre that was funded by its NGO, Reality Gives. We saw young children playing happily in their neighbourhoods, and we walked through bustling streets filled with street vendors and shoppers. I didn’t see any beggars; most people here seem to be fairly busy getting on with their daily lives. From the surface, the streets of the slum don’t actually look that different from the ‘outside world’. However, there are still underlying issues like rubbish disposal and sanitation that are yet to be resolved. Not only there are limited toilet and water facilities in the slum area, some of the public amenities are also crumbling, so a visit to the public toilets can turn out to be perilous.

Meanwhile, toxic air is another big threat to its reidents. Not only the slum is surrounded by waste and petroleum plants, we also walked past a narrow back alley where a guy was burning some unpleasant ‘stuff’ with plumes of black smoke rising up in the air. And when I put on my disposible face mask (an essential item when you are traveling around India), others in my group were rather envious of me.

Dharavi is now being redeveloped, and the Dubai-based Seclink Technology Corporation (STC) has been commissioned to oversee this project. The aim is for everyone living in the slum to have a house with 350 square-foot of carpet area, along with additional compensation within a decade. In the past, redevelopment projects have failed because of resistance from the local residents, so it is hard to predict if this one will succeed or not.

Asalpha Slum’s colourful makeover – A non-profit group Chal Rang De (Let’s Go Paint) organised by Dedeepya Reddy has transformed more than 12,000 homes across four different areas in the city into vibrant villages

After the tour, I spoke to a few people from my group and they all thought that it was an interesting and educational tour. I didn’t feel that the people who went on the tour were voyeuristic, in fact, I felt the opposite. I felt that they genuinely wanted to learn and understand more about the inhabitants, their homes and businesses in Dharavi. I sincerely hope that these tours are making people aware of the positive aspects of the slums, as well as the infrastructure issues that they face. Without understanding, it is hard for constructive changes to take place, and in order for a society to function well, we need more open dialogues and discussions between people from different classes, religions and skin colours. Voyeuristic or not? Maybe you can go on a tour and decide it for yourself.

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Top: The grade II* listed Gladstone Pottery Museum where visitors can learn about city’s pottery history and manufacturing processes; Bottom 2 rows: The city is full of abandoned pottery factories, kilns and chimneys

Last year, I visited The Asia Triennial in Manchester, and I was pleasantly surprised by the how the city has evolved since my last visit back in the early 90s. The city has also been named the most liveable place in the UK according to the Global Liveability Survey – beating London for the second time.

This year, after my 2 day visit in Stoke on Trent, I left the city feeling rather depressed, appalled and agitated. Unlike Manchester, Stoke on Trent exposes the uneven distribution of wealth in this country; and how the government has neglected many parts of the country that urgently require regeneration and economic support.

Top row: Hanley park; Bottom left: The grade II* listed train station; Bottom right: The city’s typical terraced houses

In its heyday, about 4,000 bottle kilns dominated the city’s skyline, now only 47 (listed) are left standing. Walking around the city, one can’t fail to notice the abandoned factories, kilns and chimneys that once played a vital role in city’s development and economy.

In the 1980s and 90s, Stoke-on-Trent was hit hard by the decline in the British manufacturing sector; and as a result, many factories closed down or moved overseas, leaving a sharp rise in unemployment in the ‘high-skilled but low-paid’ sector. Although in recent years, there has been a revival in the city’s pottery industry, with ceramic exports have rising by 36 percent between 2009 and 2014, the road to recovery may still take some time.

The city’s mishmash architectural styles

Last year, the city made headline news when Stoke-on-Trent City Council put 33 derelict properties on the market for a pound each in a desperate attempt to clean up the area. The ‘Clusters of Empty Homes Programme (£1 home scheme)’ was a bold and unconventional idea, and it seemed to have paid off when thousands applied for them. Yet despite all the positive press coverage of the city’s ‘renaissance’, I was not entirely convinced when I was walking around the city on a weekday afternoon.

The city’s Art Deco, Brutalist and contemporary architecture

Lack of urban planning is only one of the issues in this city. The mishmash architectural styles – not in a positive eclectic way – reveal the incoherency of city planning, hence you can find architectural styles from all eras in one street. I find it bewildering that unnecessary regeneration (and social cleansing) is constantly taking place in parts of London that erase its local identity; whereas cities like Stoke on Trent would probably benefit more from it than a wealthy and over-developed city like London.

The ‘Cultural district’ is the least cultural place I have ever visited

On paper, the cultural quarter sounds exciting, but in reality, I saw nothing related to ‘culture’ except for a street art piece and hand-written tourist information on a disused shop window panels. Many of the shops in this quarter are derelict, while the ones that remain open are chained stores like Waterstones and TK Maxx.

There were teenage ‘hoodies’ hanging out in the streets, and older guys drinking outside of the pubs looking as if they have been there for days! Even the sun couldn’t lighten up the grim and dismal atmosphere in the city centre, and I was desperate to get out.

‘Emptiness’ in Stoke on Trent’s city centre

I did some research on the city when I got back to London, and I discovered a Regeneration masterplan report proposed by the local Council in 2011. This plan suggests that followng: “the redevelopment of Stoke Town has the potential to create 500 jobs over the next 5 years and attract £25m in investment. The Council is providing £1m for remediation works and a further £2m for the wider town centre.”

Four years after this publication, I am not sure how many of its grand plans have been realised. As far as I could see, the former Spode works and its surrounding area still look dilapidated, and the same goes for the city centre or cultural district. So what happened to this master plan? Was it lack of funding that obstructed the regeneration?

I have never been to Detroit before, but I have a feeling that Stoke on Trent is the smaller and less drastic UK equalvalent of the US industrial capital that fell from grace. If Detroit is able to slowly bounce back from bankrupcy, then there is still hope for Stoke on Trent to thrive again as UK’s pottery capital.

The trip has been an eye-opening experience for me, and like most Londoners, I probably take things for granted and I tend to forget that London does not represent the rest of the country. It is a real shame that most of the foreign and government’s investments focus mostly on already wealthy cities like London, Bristol and Manchester etc. Shockingly, regional inequality in the UK is said to be the worst in Western Europe according to Eurostat, the data agency of the European Union. Many parts of UK are at least 20% poorer than the EU average, and the Shropshire and Staffordshire region (including Stoke on Trent) was named the 6th poorest in the UK in 2014. The gap between the richest and the poorest is growing at an alarmingly rate since this Government took office in 2011.

Now, I really want to ask David Cameron one question, “What happened to your grand vision of the BIG society?”

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