John Minchillo

INDIA: Dharavi's Will to Survive

The sprawling Dharavi slum located in the heart of Mumbai is staggeringly productive. The approximated 15,000 one-room factories within generate over $1 billion in profits each year, exporting tons of cheap textiles, hand-crafts, and industrial products.

Despite extreme poverty and cramped conditions, Dharavi's residents possess a quiet dignity and powerful work ethic. Attracting migrant workers from every corner of India, the slums are teeming with commerce and life during the day. Children play briskly in the streets, men converse over tea from local vendors, and women move in packs to and from their businesses.

Choking pollution, lack of clean drinking water, and risk of disease aside, they seek to carve out a living in India's "city of gold" and will brave whatever challenges they must, often with a smile and a nod.

Migrant workers from Bihar stand in their recycling production line in Mumbai's Dharavi slum. Surrounded by waste ferried in from around Mumbai and beyond, recycling businesses in Dharavi are reknowned for making use of every scavengable material.
   
Workers seperate recyclable material out from loose garbage according to type and color. Nothing goes to waste. Whatever can be sold will be sold.
   
Living quarters are often built into factory spaces. Many of these spaces shelter a dozen workers or more, all sharing a portion of the expenses.
     
  
Globalization is evident everywhere in Dharavi. International brands advertise on any available surface. It is not uncommon to see those living in extreme conditions using cell phones or watching satellite television.
   
Indian steel workers carry rods that will be cut and formed for construction applications in Mumbai's Dharavi slum. Expensive raw materials often appear from small, unassuming storerooms, further underscoring the profitability of the slum.
   
A worker assembles propane burners for export in a basement. Packed into a tiny room, typical businesses like this one form the backbone of Dharavi's economic machine.
     
  
Handcrafts are a large industry in Dharavi, with expert potters working clay with traditional kilns and methods. The slum's potters are praised for their skill and high-quality product.
   
A woman works clay on the floor of her pottery business. Families and neighbors often work in tandem to increase production.
   
Braving the heat and bobbing their heads to songs from their MP3 players, workers sew jeans for sale in Europe. Tight work spaces like these produce both knock-offs and brand names, although business owners are tight-lipped about their contracts.
     
  
Another day in Dharavi as a tailor sews custom textiles in his business stall. Skilled laborers often run their own operations that cater to the needs of slum dwellers and outside contracts.
   
Transport is key in the slums. A worker waits to unload raw materials at the metal working section of the slum. Trucks, rickshaws, and retrofitted motorcycles choke the already overburdened and undermaintained roadways.
   
Nearly one million people are packed into an area just under a square mile. The slum provides cheap alternatives to the high rents elsewhere in Mumbai.
     
  
A child carries water to her home along a drainage pipe. Residents live side by side with mountains of Mumbai's garbage.
   
A boy runs across the rooftops of the slums.
   
A man slices fabrics to spec in his workspace. Despite the chaos of the working conditions, workers just seem to know where their materials are and are prepared to sell at a moments notice.
     
  
The rooftops of the slums are often laden with stored materials for production. Plastics are often the choicest items for the low weight and ease of tossing into waiting trucks below.
   
Textile workers run jury-rigged machinery to dye clothing. Much of their production is international export quality and is treated with extreme care.
   
Two friends cling to each other as another day draws on in Dharavi. Family and friendship is on clear display in the face of poverty.