1 / The Urban Maze

Slumdogs, or Middle Class in Mumbai

There might be a million people living here, a marvel of architecture and infrastructure. Prince Charles has strong words of praise for it, although he would not be impressed with either the plumbing, or the plans held for the area by the politicians. There have been many rumours of replacing swathes of Dharavi with properly-built apartments and housing, indeed there are already some of these buildings here, but unappealing, uninhabited and vandalized.

Suggestions that only the surface area of housing will be replaced, like for like, is not going down well, since it means only those families who live on the ground floor will be offered housing. In a place where ingenious stacked housing is the norm, where does that leave most of the population?