{"id":763,"date":"2012-01-10T08:27:21","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T14:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=763"},"modified":"2025-03-02T13:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T19:09:12","slug":"the-longest-day-is-about-to-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/2012\/01\/10\/the-longest-day-is-about-to-begin\/","title":{"rendered":"The longest day is about to begin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our day began with a visit to the biggest slum in the world\u2014the Dharvarti in Mumbai.\u00a0\u00a0Over one million people live in an area that is 1.75 km; the businesses there total $1 b.\u00a0\u00a0The tour there is itself one of the businesses of the slum\u2014at $20 a person, it is pretty steep, especially when we were told that the starting salaries in one of the shops there is about 150-200 rupees a day\u2014that is 3-4$, though \"\"<\/a>that includes room (in the shop or above), and board (there are fully functioning bakeries and restaurants in the slum).\u00a0\u00a0Slumdog Millionaire was (in part) filmed there, which is not a surprise given Bombay\u2019s prominence in the film industry.\u00a0If you\u2019ve been anywhere near an Indian family, you know about Bollywood\u2014which is even more prolific than Hollywood.\u00a0\u00a0And it is partly the attraction of Bollywood that draws new people to Dharvarti\u2014as the big cities in the United States drew immigrants, and for the same reason; it was an improvement over the countryside, with a dream chance of making it out of the slum.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our guide, for example, grew up there (as did his father, when his grandfather moved there).<\/p>\n

The businesses are, as you might imagine, labor intensive, and surprisingly, contribute to the \u201cgreen movement \u201c in India.\u00a0\u00a0We were astonished at the amount (and variety) of recycling there; the tins that contain cooking oil are cleaned of residue (grease becomes soap), the cans repainted, and reused.\u00a0\u00a0Electronic goods get recycled, too, with copper stripped out and sold.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were piles of straws, the kind of small packets for ketchup\u2014you name it, and it was probably there.\u00a0\u00a0One of the shops was a batik factory, making under contract for a larger firm. There was also a school, temples and mosques, and houses.<\/p>\n

The challenge that the slum represents encompasses one of India\u2019s many challenges.\u00a0\u00a0The slum sits on some of the most valuable property in Mumbai (which is itself\u00a0\u00a0one of the most expensive cities in the world).\u00a0Trying to get locals to move requires, in this democracy, persuasion.\u00a0\u00a0Our guide, who I mentioned grew up there,\u00a0\u00a0pointed to the strong sense of community that one could not get in a high rise, and affirmed that if put to a vote, most of the residents would vote down a move to newer apartments.<\/p>\n

Part of this trip has been in preparation for my May Term visit to India and China, and the conversation took me back to my early trips to the hutongs in China.\u00a0\u00a0These century-old relics of the Manchu period (pre 1911) occupied major stretches of Beijing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I thought (as a tourist) they were quaint\u2014with a central courtyard and individual apartments surrounding it, housing, usually, several generations.\u00a0\u00a0Unlike the Bombay slums, the hutongs usually had no private bathrooms, and sometimes neither central heat nor electricity.\u00a0\u00a0The government provided the solution in China, moving residents into new housing elsewhere, turning the hutong areas into commercial districts, and leaving some for the tourist trade. One of my Chinese guides lamented many of the same changes as our guide here, but it happened in China because an autocratic government said it had to.\u00a0\u00a0Indians are rightfully proud of their democracy, but this is one instance where more central authority (the Indians we\u2019ve met are appalled at the inability of their government to effect change, although political paralysis does not seem to be confined to India!) might be an improvement.<\/p>\n

Our guide (and our national guide, a very articulate man from Delhi, with whom I hope to travel in May\u2014I called him \u201cguru\u201d, or teacher) said that part of the problem with the plans to eliminate the slums so far is not only the reluctance of the slum dwellers\u2014but the patent greed on the part of the developers.\u00a0\u00a0Hence, the current stalemate.<\/p>\n

At our second visit on a rather busy day (several of our number left yesterday, and I had a car whisk me to the airport when we finished our second visit; I\u2019m writing while waiting for the flight to Delhi at the Mumbai airport), we were at the Welspun group, a conglomerate like many Indian companies, in many industries.\u00a0\u00a0This one started in textiles, which is still bread-and-butter, making towels for major retailers such as Wal-mart (a sign told employees they could purchase Wimbledon towels for $5), but has diversified into energy (it owns a coal mine in Australia!), infrastructure (roads, ports and airports), and pipelines.\u00a0\u00a0It is a $3 b global company with 24,000 employees in foreign countries such as Arkansas, and is looking to undertake projects in the southern Sudan.<\/p>\n

During his talk, another \u201caha\u201d thought struck me about the comparison and contrasts with China.\u00a0\u00a0One of the faculty had asked about corporate social responsibility, and his targets were familiar\u2014education (supporting schools in the areas it has factories),and training the underprivileged\u2014and providing education to employees’ wives.\u00a0\u00a0In the other factories, and even in the slums, most of the workers we saw were men.\u00a0Even the sewing shop in the slums.\u00a0\u00a0Any comparable factory in China would most likely have young women from the countryside manning\u2014as it were\u2014the factories.\u00a0\u00a0Another challenge for India\u2014tapping the talent of the other half of the population!<\/p>\n

One very entrepreneurial business our guide did point out reminded me that I\u2019d been equally intrigued 15 years ago.\u00a0\u00a0It seems a local village realized that, \"\"<\/a>as the industry dispersed, and men spent a long time commuting to a job, they could not have a \u201chome cooked meal.” The village developed a logistic system (I wish\u00a0\u00a0the airlines would let them arrange airline schedules) where they picked up a cooked meal at 9:30 or so, and delivered all the meals to the right workplace at 1 o\u2019clock, then pick up the used dishes at 2, and return them to the employee\u2019s house.\u00a0\u00a0Think of the advantages; mom could sleep in; dad could survive the train ride (he\u2019d have at least one hand to grab onto a pole or strap, a lifesaver from what I\u2019ve seen on the Mumbai commuter trains); and he\u2019d get a hot meal made by his favorite cook.\u00a0\u00a0The distribution channel goes down to bicycles for the last mile, ending the delivery process.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our guide noted that it\u2019s mostly the older generation.\u00a0\u00a0Young people, he noted, prefer (or are willing to accept) McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Give me a roti anytime.\u00a0\u00a0But I\u2019ll have to come back to resolve at least one puzzle: if I eat something Indian and different every day for breakfast, how many years would it take before I had to repeat.\u00a0\u00a0On the other hand, maybe I\u2019ll just stick to my dosa masala.\u00a0\u00a0Go get one (a rice pancake with a spicy potato filling), and you\u2019ll understand why I\u2019ll miss India.<\/p>\n

Now if only the departure time would be sooner!<\/p>\n

See you soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our day began with a visit to the biggest slum in the world\u2014the Dharvarti in Mumbai.\u00a0\u00a0Over one million people live in an area that is 1.75 km; the businesses there total $1 b.\u00a0\u00a0The tour there is itself one of the businesses of the slum\u2014at $20 a person, it is pretty steep, especially when we were … Continue reading “The longest day is about to begin”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-india-2012"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8471,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions\/8471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}