Media for social change

Part one of a four-part series on the disparate voices affected by the Mumbai slum demolitions, this episode introduces us to some of the slum dwellers themselves.

In this city, the most populous in the world (approximately 14 million people), slightly more than half of its residents live in slum tenements. Nevertheless, the Municipal government and urban elites have mounted a fierce campaign of disenfranchisement, evictions, and police harassment of the city's slum dwellers.

Situated in southern India's Maharashtra State, Mumbai is home to a fast growing tech-savvy sector leading the world in the tele-communications industry. Up against this bustling background is a slew of societal pressures including increased migration, closure of public lands, and skyrocketing real estate prices, effectively widening the disparity gap between rich and poor.

With a booming IT and trade market on the slick streets of downtown Bombay, and an "untraditional" labour-based economy on the dusty roads of Dharavi, the city's largest slum, this juxtaposition of economic clusters has been at one time mutually beneficial and, at another, socially destructive. In the early 2000's, prominent Maharashtrians lobbied the Bombay High Court to restrict slum dwellers from voting, followed by the city's own Municipal Corporation engaging in mass evictions and slum demolitions -- only to then push for striking these 'former residents' from voters' lists.

(Cinematography : DR, Anna Hunter, Mission Demolition)