2008.12.27 To have Dharavi for an address

Sugandha Pathak, DNA

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The Perumal family has been living in Dharavi for the last 30 years. When E Palvanna Perumal landed in this city for his brand new job as a welder at Western Railways the only home he could afford was in Dharavi.

Over the years he grew to love this sprawling suburb though he missed the open spaces of his village in Thirunelveli. There is nothing to beat Dharavi's conveniences he says. And good neighbours made a very supportive community for this migrant family. But one thing he is clear about, once his children settle down, he wants to return home to his village.

Perumal's children have worked out futures that could take them out of the slum. His eldest son is a banker with ICICI, another child is studying engineering, and a daughter is about to finish her MBBS and the younger daughter is studying law. All of them feel hesitant about mentioning their addresses to teachers and classmates and not without a reason.

"People have a very conditioned response to Dharavi. Many times my teachers would run down a badly behaved boy by calling him a 'Dharavi type'. I still hide from my classmates the fact that I live here," says Radha. Dharavi, she says, is a definite put-off for many prospective employers.

Radha's eldest brother, the banker, in fact has already moved out to flat in Thane.And the girls, Perumal hopes, will find homes elsewhere with their future husbands. In another corner of Dharavi lives the family of Shantaram Raghunath Lal, a retired mill worker who came here 25 years ago from Rajapur, a small town in the Konkan.

Raising three children wasn't easyfor Lal. But recently his 22-year-old son Sandesh found a job with a bank , giving the family reasons to hope for a more comfortable future.

Sandesh, unlike Radha, feels that he is indebted to his locality. When he was studying, a lot of support including money came his way from the community. And he says he has yet to hear a bad word about Dharavi from classmates, friends or colleagues. "My friends have visited me here at home. Even when I went for an interview I didn't change my address. In fact one colleague in the HR department was also from Dharavi. When I was in Ruia College I never experienced any kind of bias when I told classmates where I come from. They were very open and welcoming". Sandesh for one wants to hang on to his Dharavi house for all the memories it carries, even if he moves into a more upmarket locality as he plans to.

Over the years Dharavi's profile has changed a lot. From being a disreputable slum sprawl it has turned into a hub for small enterprises. The line of leather bag shops lining it are now patronised by women across the city. Today, it is far less crime prone that it was once. It has the odd case of chain snatching or stealing--- and drug addiction is still a big problem. But it has acquired a certain respectability.

Mary has brought her four children up single handedly in Dharavi. She was born here and life for her has been an endless struggled. Her father was an alcoholic; with siblings to support and no education, Mary started working as a domestic help as a young girl. Her marriage to an abusive and alcoholic husband did not last long and Mary left him to raise her children alone.

The children have been shunted between boarding schools but with some help from missionaries Mary finally bought herself a shack in Dharavi. "For a single woman it was very difficult living here alone. Strange people would knock at my door at night," she recalls.

Through all this Mary ensured that her children studied hard for a better future. Today, Gibson, her younger son works as a Network Operation Engineer with Net Magic Solutions. And her eldest Wilson works for JP Morgan.

"It has changed a lot. People outside don't know much about it. But the aspirations of those living in Dharavi are changing and they want their children to study hard and get good jobs," says Gibson. His sisters have opted to work in the voluntary sector. "Wehardly lived here as children and had a negative opinion of Dharavi. Once we started living here we saw its positive side," says Hilda, Mary's younger daughter.

Mohammad Aslam Khan, a physician who has been practicing in Dharavi for 25 years says that the locality is no longer infested with criminals and gangs as it once was. He points out that the massive Tamil community that inhabits Dharavi particularly has prospered because it emphasised on education for children. But migrants from other communities too have unbelievable success stories to tell. In some ways Dharavi is a microcosm of the city itself.