Dave and I stumbled upon part one of an interesting documentary calling 'Slumming it' the other night. It was about a slum called Dharavi in Mumbai (the most densely populated slum in the world, and the one which was made famous by the film Slumdog Millionaire). There are a million people who live there, within one square mile, most of them in conditions of extreme poverty and apalling sanitation, and subject to a high incidence of disease. And yet, intriguingly, it is a community that is increasingly being pointed to by town planners and architects as having found (or retained) the answers to some of our cities' biggest problems.
In this series, Kevin McCloud (better-known for his show Grand Designs) visits the slum, living within in it for two weeks, getting to know the locals and trying to understand it. Along the way he makes some fascinating observations. He struggles to comprehend the way the family he stays with manages to fit 21 people in a tiny house (five people per room, and each room has multiple functions) and finds the conditions hard to cope with (rats in the room as he tries to sleep, etc, etc). Yet he is struck by how happy the people seem to be and how little evidence there seems to be of loneliness or fear of crime. Young women walk the streets at night and feel safe. The children are (mostly) getting an education - on top of the hours many of them work in factories and sweatshops - and he sees a kind of beauty in the varied colours and textures of the slum. (Interestingly, for example, the women still wear the most beautiful saris).
I'm sure there would be people who could paint a darker picture of social dynamics in Dharavi, and a couple of weeks with a film crew and 'everybody seemed happy to me' is not exactly a scientific study! But there was still so much in the bits of the slum that I did get to see that challenged my assumptions. I was struck once again by how blessed I am to live in Australia with good health care, a warm bed to sleep in (no rats!), abundant food and clean water. But it also made me realise that there is a lot that there is a lot to be said about a community where people are always around and multiple generations live together under the one roof, the old cared for among their families and passing down wisdom to the next generation.
It just so happened the next night that I was outside at the letter box talking with my next door neighbour as the sun set and cool breeze came through. I don't know if it was because I'd just watched the show the night before, but I found myself asking more questions about what it was like on our street when she and her husband built their house back in the late fifties. She told me about a time when life wasn't so busy, mothers were at home during the day, kids could play on the street and everyone knew each other and looked out for each other...
At the end of the program last night, Kevin McCloud discovered that there were plans to demolish the slums and build a big new development in their place - Mumbai is, after all, a booming city and there is money to be made. I'm sure there will be some things about the new development that will be a whole lot more pleasant than the current slum. But I wonder at the same time whether some of the best things about Dharavi will be demolished and not replaced, and I worry about the fate of the people who live there.
You can watch the episode on iView.
(Img from BBC Knowledge)
7 comments:
Really interesting observations - thanks for drawing the show to my attention Nicole. I'm nervous about asking our neighbours to collect our mail for 2wks, so I think I'm in agreement with all the points you made!
SBDx
Hi Nicole,
I remember seeing this part of the documentary a few months ago and was struck by Kevin McLeod's conclusions too. I was interested that he was able to comment on the depth of relationships between the generations (from my memory) that we seem to have lost and the value of the lives where the community exists.
I really enjoy your blog, though have not commented before.
Kathy.
Hi Nicole,
I remember seeing this part of the documentary a few months ago and was struck by Kevin McLeod's conclusions too. I was interested that he was able to comment on the depth of relationships between the generations (from my memory) that we seem to have lost and the value of the lives where the community exists.
I really enjoy your blog, though have not commented before.
Kathy.
HI Nic,
The idea that people living in slums could be happier than we are is confronting but points to another source of happiness that material wealth. That's a good challenge for us.
Some of what you mention comes by very nature of many people in a small space. It's very difficult for anyone to do anything without a witness... that makes it "safe". It also has its disadvantages.
I haven't seen the documentary, but my experience is that it is very hard to witness life as it actually is in such a community. Especially if one is a very important guest (and one making a documentary that will be broadcast across the world). One's very presence changes things.
It was many years of being here before people would trust us to let us see the "down" side of village life, the fights, the adultery, the elderly who are not looked after, the incest.
We can have a very romantic and nostalgic idea of community that may not actually exist.
I'd like to see what he thought if he stayed long enough to see the things people don't want him to see.
Yeah, the skeptic in me (actually the skeptic I'm married to!) wondered about some of the same things. It's interesting to have those wonderings confirmed somewhat by what you say. I don't think it completely eliminates the challenge to selfish individualistic Western materialism, but it helps to guard against naivety/romanticism/nostalgia about village/community etc.
Kathy - it was interesting wasn't it? Thanks for introducing yourself!
And Sarah - a good chance to get to know the neighbours a bit better, I guess!
Yes, I saw that doco too and was fascinated. I liked how they worked hard to see good things in amongst the bad and didn't just assume poor = horrible. Of course, you can err on the side of glossing over the hardships too. One of the things it reminded me of was that outsiders do not always make accurate "judgements" about such situations. I was watching a youtube clip a little while ago about a visit to a home in the Philippines. The American visitors were talking in rather shocked voices about the fact that the whole family was sleeping on the floor each night. Having lived part of my childhood in the Philippines, I found their reaction amusing given that sleeping on the floor was entirely traditional and not necessarily a horrible hardship. Yes, the household they were visiting did have a lot of issues related to poverty, but the Western view of bedding might not have been such a big drama in the eyes of the family.
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