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Raju Bhoite’s family has traded in leather goods for several generations. Bhoite, like the rest of the clan, has grown up in Mumbai’s so-called eyesore, Dharavi, where they have been practising the trade for decades. Although a buzzing hub of economic activity, Dharavi seems to hold little hope for Bhoite. The abysmal and unregulated working conditions and the uncertain cloud of a massive redevelopment plan seem to have chipped off the old glory.

Dharavi, often dubbed ‘Asia’s Largest Slum’, is a vast settlement spread across 590 acres starting right where Mumbai’s suburbs begin. It is home to nearly a million people, but there is no formal census to provide exact figures. Dharavi is a haven for the city’s poor immigrants, one of the reasons why it has a thriving economy of more than $1.5 billion a year. All is this by estimate, as no one is ready to put any figure to one of the largest concentrations of cottage industries in India.

The various trades thriving in Dharavi—thanks to low rentals, electricity pilfering and cheap labor costs—are spread across this mammoth slum land. Residential and commercial structures know no demarcation. A majority of its vastly illegal structures double up as sweat shops during the day and crammed messes for the workers at night. But the various trades are contained in tight pockets. The potters’ village alone sits on a 13-acre piece of land tucked away in one corner of what’s known as Sion Dharavi.

The predominant industries that have stood the test of time are those of leather tanning and dying, leather goods manufacturing, pottery, garments manufacturing and food production. Plastic recycling has taken on fresh flavor in the recent past. However, the Rs. 7,000 crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP)—prepared by architect Mukesh Mehta and the Dharavi Redevelopment Authority and approved in 2004 by the Maharashtra state government—seems to have shaken the foundations of these businesses, many of which are either shutting down or relocating to other industrial areas.

The universal claim for this phenomenon is the lack of clarity or communication on the part of the government regarding land allocation for industry redevelopment. The architect’s plan, though, clearly states provision for a modernized industrial zone.

“It seems that all the area under the redevelopment scheme is considered residential. The industry now co-exists with residential areas. So, there is no clarity about what will happen to us once the redevelopment is underway,” says Chandu Bhoite, who has an export-oriented leather wallet manufacturing unit and is the chairman of Leather Crafts Association.

Not waiting for an uncertain future, Bhoite and 200 such manufacturing units are migrating to Bhiwandi. “Here, the workers are forced to operate out of 150- to 200-square feet rooms. Due to such space constraints, most people have constructed floors that are illegal. In Bhiwandi, we have personally invested in double-storey ready units with an area of 2,000 square feet on each floor. Even if we get flats in Dharavi after redevelopment, they will provide only 250 square feet, which will still be insufficient for the 20 to 25 workers that work, on an average, in these units,” Bhoite explains.

It is not merely space crunch that’s forcing such a migration, though. The illegal real estate means absolute lack of collateral security to obtain bank loans. “Owned units in Bhiwandi will give us that collateral to mortgage in lieu of loans to buy modern machine tools. Better working conditions and quality will get us more orders. It will also be an employment generator for the locals there,” Bhoite elaborates.

The tanneries have already shifted out of Dharavi and relocated to Chennai. Lack of effluent treatment plants proved hazardous for the world developing outside and around Dharavi, forcing the tanneries to move. All that remains are some dying and refinishing units.

For others, rising costs and a fading interest in certain crafts is becoming the bane of existence for the industry. Shamim Ahmed, who owns a garments manufacturing unit, has already had to shut the second unit he owned in Dharavi. In fact, he has converted a three-storey structure that was initially constructed for business into a residential unit, which he has leased out.
The garments industry in Dharavi is mostly ruled and run by Bengali Muslims. However, with state governments doling out lucrative employment schemes for the youth and with better education, it has become difficult to lure even the adiwasis, says Ahmed.

With the advent of modern machineries and computerized designs, handcrafted and embroidered designs have also lost demand. The drop in profits, therefore, has meant stagnation in salaries for karigars or craftsmen who spend up to 12 hours a day bent over manual sewing machines, sharing a
room both day and night with at least eight other co-workers.

Many have shut shop and either ventured into other trades or have left Dharavi altogether, Ahmed informs. He plans to follow suit if things slide further downhill. Already, machines in the unit sit idle and profits per day from his eight machines average Rs. 100 per machine.

The generations of potters that have settled in Dharavi are primarily from Kutchchh or Saurashtra in Gujarat. There are more than 1,000 families in Dharavi. However, the trade is dwindling fast and now only about 600 such families are still involved in the business.

With a leap in the number of settlers and a debilitating space crunch, the potters have been forced to move from drying their products in the open spaces outside their homes to their terraces. Even the kilns have been turned into community kilns and the mud pits needed for soaking the raw material have all but dwindled, forcing people to build illegal floors, says Abbas Dalvani, whose family has been in the business for several generations; his great grandfather had migrated to Mumbai with the trade.

Though Dalvani’s family, like some others’, have resorted to using ready clay that comes in powder form and only needs to be mixed with water to produce a perfect dough, most others still use farmland soil and traditional methods of firing the clay. Few have taken to gas kilns, which not only reduce breakage but also ensure products that are evenly heated and better finished. Money, of course, is a constraint in this regard. Not everyone has been so enterprising or lucky.

Further, adds Dalvani, education has also meant that most of the current generation is no longer interested in being potters. “[The youngsters] are getting into the merchant navy or the IT sector. Few people like us are resolute about carrying on the trade,” says Dalvani, displaying the latest batch of decorative lamps that are selling more than the traditional pots. The new methods and raw material are also yielding better profit margins. And those who are enterprising enough are also doubling up as pottery teachers in schools and colleges.

However, the topic veers back to that of the space crunch and what the redevelopment might have in store for the Dharavi economy. The sentiment echoed is the same as everywhere else in that huge milieu of traders and workers: the future is uncertain. By no means is 250 square feet of floor space sufficient for any trade, especially those like pottery that need open spaces for the finished products to dry. Though the powder clay can be air-dried and does not need sunlight, the promised space is just not sufficient. “Many might have to move out, unless the exact nature of the redevelopment plan—especially for industry—is made clear,” feels Dalvani.

The other factor plaguing the slowly dying trades of Dharavi is the lack of unity or associations. Everyone from leather goods manufacturers to garment manufacturers to potters rue the fact that due to the lack of any association or formal trade, the traders are powerless to fight for their rights.

“We had set up a Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association to regulate quality, fix price, to decide on working and non-working days, and other things. However, there is no unity among the people here; the association never took off. Now, if the government tells us to move, we don’t have a unified voice to fight it,” laments a disgruntled Raju Bhoite.

The adverse effect of the non-unity is also reflected in the fact that the shop owner has to take the onus of the product quality. This is because the whole of Dharavi works as a cottage industry, based on orders. With no organization to back them, the shop owner bears the brunt. This, in a way, is also due to the lack of space: no space means no scope for extra storage, forcing traders to manufacture just enough to suffice orders. And this forces the industry to remain unorganized, Dalvani explains.

Mukesh Mehta’s project promises dedicated non-polluting industrial plots and ground floor, commercial units within buildings for street-dependent businesses. The project also promises to provide communal open spaces within building plots to encourage home-based, income-generating activities. The architect’s presentation reads, “Commercial sale plots will increase the number of job opportunities.”

However, no promise seems to have touched a soothing chord with the traders. They continue to feel threatened by the prospect of losing their already inadequate space for business—a fear that could lead Mumbai’s unorganized business juggernaut to direct its wheels elsewhere.

TROUBLESHOOTERS

In a candid conversation, Gautam Chatterjee, (CEO of the Dharavi Redevelopment Authority and Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority) and Mukesh Mehta (the project management consultant) speak about the problems and solutions for this mammoth task ahead.

Concerns: Lack of transparency about the project and its offerings.

Solutions: The plan has been put online by the  redevelopment authority to enable free access for everyone.

Concerns: Fear of displacement without proper compensation.

Solutions: • A biometric census is being conducted and ID cards being handed out to those residing in Dharavi prior to 2000.
• 300 square feet of space for each family and no spill over of residents to adjoining areas through transfer of development rights. This is
more than the 150 square feet (or less) that 80 percent of Dharavi structures have now, and more than any slum rehab program offers.

Concerns: An end to their livelihood.

Solutions: • Far from it. While the current area is divided between commercial and residential space, after the redevelopment, the whole of the lower level of the 151 hectares of the ground level of land under development and 40 percent of the podium level will be for existing Dharavi traders and their shops. 60 percent of the podium level will be up for free selling to outsiders. This also means that almost one and a half times of Dharavi’s current total area will be available for trade later on. This is going to translate into 23 percent of the total redeveloped area.
• Six percent of the space of the rehabilitation area will be dedicated as a community space for those 28 household trades that are not documented as commercial trades. This translates into an additional 25 square feet of space per household.

Concerns: Unfair practices of development, where the government or developer pockets the money.

Solutions: Once again, the developers’ profit is being capped through a tendering process and the project is a public-private partnership. Dharavi will be divided into five sectors according to major trades and developed by the chosen five developers and maintained for free for the next 15 years by the project management consultant. The developer and consultant will earn money only through the free sell that they will make of whatever is left after Dharavi residents are accommodated.

Concerns: Why would anyone want to buy space in Dharavi?

Solutions: All public amenities to be provided would be of the highest quality and provided free to Dharavi residents. Those coming from outside Dharavi would pay for the amenities.

Concerns: Due to lack of associations and knowledge, goods manufactured in Dharavi have little or no marketing, fetching poor compensation.

Solutions: Talks are already on with institutions like the National institute of design to collaborate with the craftsmen of Dharavi and brand their products. This could increase family incomes manifold from a mere Rs. 35,000 in some cases to over Rs. 1 lakh. A trademark and logo are also in the process of being registered for products manufactured in Dharavi under the brand name of ‘Dharam’.

Concerns: With better and legalized houses, the cost of living will go up.

Solutions: With better earning opportunities, it will be possible to afford a better lifestyle, especially when general maintenance is being taken care of for 15 years. Healthcare could also become free. With hygienic working and living conditions, life expectancy and work orders could also increase.

©Entrepreneur October 2009

Tags:
Abbas Dalvani, Bhiwandi, Chandu Bhoite, Chennai, craft, Dharavi, Dharavi Redevelopment Authority, Dharavi Redevelopment Project, DRP, Gautam Chatterjee, industrial zone, Leather Crafts Association, Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association, Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority, MHADA, Mukesh Mehta, Mumbai, potters, Raju Bhoite, Shamim Ahmed, Sion Dharavi, slum, smetv, tanneries, trade