The redevelopment of Dharavi is drawing concern from residents and workers who say the project treats the settlement primarily as a housing issue while overlooking the complex economic and social systems that sustain daily life in one of Mumbai’s largest informal urban clusters.
For many residents, housing and employment are deeply interconnected. Families operate workshops, small-scale industries and businesses from the same spaces where they live, creating a dense network of neighbourhood-based economic activity that supports thousands of workers.
Lakshmi, a laundry worker who has lived and worked in Dharavi for decades, said her livelihood depends entirely on the local customer base and social networks built over generations. “At least 50 clothes a day. Ten rupees per piece,” she says. After deducting expenses for detergent and cleaning agents, she is left with around ₹400 a day for household expenses.
Originally from Telangana’s Mahbubnagar district, Lakshmi moved to Mumbai after marriage and became part of Dharavi’s traditional dhobi community. She recalled that around 30 families earlier worked in the local dhobi ghat area before it was demolished in 2017 during drainage improvement works.
“Absolutely useless,” she says about the rehabilitation flat allotted to her in Mahul, located nearly 20 kilometres away. “Most families, when they got houses in Mahul, returned to Telangana. They were not able to sustain work there. I came back to Dharavi because this is where our daily clientele is.”
The redevelopment project, being executed through a special purpose vehicle in partnership with Adani Group and the Maharashtra government, is estimated to involve investments of nearly Rs 95,790 crore.
Residents and trade groups have raised concerns regarding eligibility criteria, relocation policies and the future of Dharavi’s informal industries, which support sectors such as pottery, leather, garments, food processing and recycling. Many fear that relocation outside Dharavi could disrupt long-established economic networks and affect livelihoods tied closely to the locality’s live-work ecosystem.
Source: Frontline Magazine
