Reflections

a tenure and they know that their structures are there for good, then they will develop
them, make them pakka over a period of time. Even most of us from middle class
families furnish our houses gradually. That's a very natural process. Slum-dwellers
should be given basic amenities. If the government cannot provide a tap for each
hutment, let them at least provide one for ten.
Your contention is that Dharavi is an ideal slum. How do you explain this?
There is no magical solution to the housing problem. The stark fact is that we are
growing at the rate of two per cent per year. Dharavi has its own infrastructure. It is
flourishing. I think we must face up to the fact that the Bombay of the future is going
to be more like Dharavi and less like Cuffe Parade.
And one problem is that we look at the city in a very physical way. The city is about
social, economic and cultural life. We live here not for the skyscrapers but for its
intellectual life. Because life is so intense here. A famous architect has said that a city
is about ideas, about people rather than about its buildings.
You feel that too much is made about the façade of a city?
Yes. And again, why don't we go to Dharavi and ask the people if they like to live
there or not? Its people like us, who drive past it, who say it should be pulled down.
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