From polyclinics to rehabilitation buildings, the standards will not be lowered for any construction. In fact, amenities like lifts and exterior paint will have to be guaranteed by the developer for 15 years. Residents of each building will form a cooperative society to supervise maintenance.

Tolls and Taxes

ALREADY, Dharavi has completed chapter one of the transformation story: Chivda and chakli manufacturing, done entirely through smallscale household units, have spawned food barons. Computer institutes, jewellery shops, coaching classes and beauty salons dot every lane.

“There’s nothing that’s not made in Dharavi,” says Sandeep Bagade, who owns Shivom Leather, one in a row of over 100 boutiques retailing leather goods. In 1986, a survey by the National Slum Dwellers Federation recorded 244 small manufacturers and 43 big industries. There were 152 units making chikki, papad and other food items, 111 restaurants, 722 scrap and recycling units, 25 bakeries and 85 export-oriented units. Over 20 years, the numbers could only have multiplied and diversified.

In Sahadev Bagade’s leather sweatshop, designs from Chloe and Fendi are exactingly duplicated. At a fraction of the designer price, they’re still too dear for the average Dharavi shopper. “For export only,” says Bagade, “to Dubai.” Orders for the calf leather and buck leather pieces—”almost as good as the original companies’ quality”—also come from Goa, especially now that the tourist season is around the corner.

Every second leather manufacturer in the shanty town now has an export licence, ensures his leather is certified according to stringent requirements abroad, and there’s a much sharper need to keep designs moving with the trends. Almost all of them pay Rs 6 lakh to Rs 7 lakh in taxes annually.

... contd.