Now that I’m past the halfway mark of my internship in Mumbai, I want to reflect on the experience so far—where I’m working, who I’m working with, and most importantly, what I’ve learned.
When I first received my placement at Urbz, I looked it up briefly, thought it seemed interesting and moved on. That changed the moment I arrived in Mumbai.
I soon discovered that Urbz is based in Dharavi—often labelled as Asia’s largest slum, infamous for its portrayals in films like Slumdog Millionaire. I won’t lie—the idea of working in Dharavi scared me. The Western world paints it as a place of extreme poverty, crime, and desperation, a chaotic and dangerous area.
Exploding the Stereotypes
Now, after spending time in Dharavi, I can confidently say those perceptions couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, it’s one of the most densely populated places in the world, with an estimated 418,410 people per km² (compared to Auckland CBD’s 29,712/km²), but it’s also a hub of resilience, enterprise, and ingenuity.
Dharavi has a thriving billion-dollar informal economy, producing leather goods, textiles, pottery, plastic recycling, metalwork, and food manufacturing. Nearly every alley leads to a workshop, or a home-based business.
Far from being crime-ridden, Dharavi has remarkably low crime rates compared to other parts of Mumbai (and even New Zealand). The biggest challenge isn’t lawlessness—it’s the lack of infrastructure and government support.
Dharavi is one of the most underserved communities in India. Rather than investing in it, the government views it as prime real estate, ripe for redevelopment. The long-awaited Dharavi Redevelopment Project proposes high-rise Slum Rehabilitation Units (SRUs) that disregard the neighbourhood’s organic, mixed-use structure, prioritising commercial interests over community needs.
Urbz: Empowering Communities Through People-Centered Design
This is where Urbz comes in. Urbz challenges top-down urban planning by working directly with communities, helping them shape their own neighborhoods through participatory design and advocacy.
Urbz operates globally, with teams in Mumbai, Geneva, Paris, New York, and Bogotá. Their approach focuses on Collective Intelligence (CI)—leveraging local knowledge to develop innovative, context-specific solutions that build on existing community strengths rather than imposing outside fixes.
In Dharavi, Urbz works mostly in Koliwada, home to Mumbai’s indigenous Koli fishing community. Unlike much of Dharavi, where redevelopment is restricted to large-scale projects that often displace residents, Koliwada is one of the few areas still allowed to self-develop. Even here, however, policies limit autonomy, pushing people out in favour of profit-driven projects.
My project at Urbz involves implementing solar-powered street lights in Dharavi Koliwada—a small but impactful step toward improving safety and accessibility. Like much of Urbz’s work, it isn’t about imposing change but working alongside the community to address real, immediate needs.
One big learning: Rethinking the Word “Slum”
Before coming to Mumbai, I never questioned the word “slum.” It was just a term used to describe places of poverty. But after working in Dharavi, I see how misleading and harmful it is.
The word “slum” carries deep-seated prejudice, evoking images of disorder and decay. Its roots are tangled with words like slump, swamp, scum, slob, slush, and slut. Once used to describe urban poverty in Europe, it has since been weaponised to be exclusively used to describe communities in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, reinforcing harmful stereotypes.
“Slum” suggests chaos and dysfunction, implying these neighbourhoods are burdens on the city rather than integral to its economy. In reality, Dharavi is a self-sustaining, industrious, and deeply interconnected community. The labour of its people contributes significantly to Mumbai’s economy. Yet, the “slum” label legitimises redevelopment projects that displace communities instead of supporting them.
More importantly, the people of Dharavi reject the term. It disempowers them, painting them as victims rather than as hardworking, resourceful individuals. Dharavi is not a slum—it is a homegrown neighbourhood, a hub of innovation, and a testament to human resilience.
If we want to truly understand places like Dharavi, we need to start by changing the way we speak about them. Removing the word “slum” from our vocabulary is one small but powerful step toward recognising the dignity, strength, and potential of these communities.
A New Perspective
My experience in Dharavi has shattered my preconceived notions about the community and shown me firsthand the power of resilience and grassroots innovation.
Dharavi faces immense challenges—from government neglect to the constant threat of displacement—but it is far from hopeless. It is a dynamic, thriving ecosystem where people are not just surviving but building, creating, and pushing forward against the odds.
