Dharavi

Dharavi is a locality in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It houses one of the largest slums in the world.

Dharavi slum was founded in 1882 during the British colonial era. The slum grew in part because of an expulsion of factories and residents from the peninsular city centre by the colonial government, and from rural poor migrating into urban Mumbai (then called Bombay). It is currently a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, diverse settlement. Estimates of Dharavi's total population vary between 700,000 to about 1 million.

Dharavi has an active informal economy in which numerous household enterprises employ many of the slum residents. It exports goods around the world. Leather, textiles and pottery products are among the goods made inside Dharavi by the slum residents. The total annual turnover has been estimated at over US$500 million.

Dharavi has suffered from many epidemics and other disasters. It currently covers an area of 217 hectares (535 acres).

History

In the 18th century, Dharavi was an island with predominantly mangrove swamp .Daravi is a historical spelling of the area. It was a sparsely populated village before the late 19th century, inhabited by Koli fishermen. Dharavi was then referred to as the village of Koliwadas.