DHARAVI (1992): Indian Aspirations Trivialized and Crushed as Informal Economy

Congested Urban Agglomerations are of two kinds. Those belonging to a rich affluent class, which are considered cities proper, and those inhabited by the underprivileged and often resourceless migrant workers, which are called slums. Such slums have been a part of most cities at some point of time or the other, and have gradually disappeared as incomes rose and populations stabilized. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort has happened in Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia, spread over 500 acres, with a population of around a million people, and a density of over 800,000 persons per square mile.

This slum, which took roots during the days of East India Company, when Bombay was established as one of its three residency towns in India, is also a big economic hub, with a total production of over a billion US dollars. Yet, this economy, consisting mostly of micro and small enterprises, is considered informal since the land they are based on, is not formally allocated for such industrial purposes, and most of them being too small, do not comply with the multitude of entangling  regulations that are supposed to be applicable on them. As a result, those running these informal micro-enterprises neither have access to financing, nor are their rights fully recognized by the State. This leaves them at the mercy of exploitative money lenders and criminal mafia, which thrives on it.  

DHARAVI (1992) is a movie depicting life in this slum area, which was produced jointly by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and Doordarshan (National TV channel of India). With a working couple as the leading protagonists, this movie wades into the life, struggles, aspirations, crime and misfortune that constitute the fate of nearly a million people who inhabit this slum. Set in late eighties, prior to the liberalization of Indian economy, it documents their state of affair in the background of the main plot.

A still from DHARAVI (1992) - A movie produced by NFDC & Doordarshan

Shabana Azmi and Om Puri, the leading actors in this movie are two of the most renowned faces of what was called the parallel Indian cinema in the seventies. By the early nineties, it had lost its vigor, but that does not prevent these two great stalwarts from carrying their responsibility in this movie. The success of DHARAVI lies in being a fiction, a documentary, a tragedy and a tale of hope, all at the same time. Thanks to the excellent performance of its leading as well as supporting cast, it won several awards, including the 1992 National Film Award, and yet, the most prominent figure on its posters was that of Madhuri Dixit, who only had a brief guest appearance as a dream girl in a couple of day dreaming sequences. 

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The Plot

DHARAVI is a tale of a taxi driver, Rajkaran (Om Puri) who lives in a makeshift one room unit in Dharavi, with his wife, Kumud (Shabana Azmi) and their son, before his mother (Anjana Mumtaz) also joins them from their native village. Kumud works in a textile unit and was earlier married to Shankar (Mushtaq Khan). Along with Kumud, Rajkaran has worked hard for more than a decade to accumulate a saving of Rs. 25000 with which he aspires to set up a factory, in partnership with three others, including Chaurasia (Deepak Qazir) and Chandu (Raghubir Yadav). Kumud’s brother, Chaskar (Virendra Saxena) is a social activist who keeps raising issues against wrong doers as well as criminals and is always facing their ire. 

Rajkaran desperately wants to buy a local dyeing makeshift unit hat that is put on sale, to make his dream come true, but one of the partners defaults in contributing his share at the last minute. The local bar man, Pareshan (Chandu Parikh) suggests to Rajkaran that he take help from the local underworld don, Dada Sardar (Satish Khopkar). Though Rajkaran hates doing so, he has no other option and is forced to borrow money from Dada. In the meanwhile, Chaskar is killed by the Dada Sarkar’s men one night. 

Unfortunately, Rajkaran’s makeshift factory, which has been established without proper permissions is dismatled by the authorities soon thereafter. This not only destroys all that they have invested, but also leaves Rajkaran in a debt crisis as he is not in a position to return the money borrowed from Dada. Making use of this opportunity, Dada calls for his taxi and uses it for a murder. Irked by this, he confronts Dada, as a result of which his home is ransacked by his goons and his taxi is also taken away by them.

Rajkaran, who is a fan of Madhuri Dixit, tries to take solace in drinks and daydreaming, and becomes highly irritable and difficult for his wife. Meanwhile, Kumud’s first husband has returned to the neighborhood and is suffering from part paralysis. Kumud tries to help him and they again become close. Rajkaran, who now drives a hired taxi, robs a passenger in desperation, and is caught by the police. His mother urges Kumud to do something, and though she hates Dada and his mafia for having killed her brother, yet she is forced to go to him and beg for help. Dada Sarkar gets Rajkaran out, but Kumud, who is now completely frustrated with Rajkaran, leaves him and goes back to her earlier partner. Rajkaran tries to earn money and repay Dada so as to get his taxi back, but the taxi is burnt in a gang war. The devastated Rajkaran must begin his life all over again.

A still from the movie, DHARAVI, a 1992 Bollywood Movie

Exploited Humanity can Mark the Death of Civilization 

Perhaps, the most memorable scenes of the movie is one where four men are playing hockey in a small lane, and a young homeless child, who has taken shelter on a hand cart parked nearby is lying on it and watching them. Chaskar (Kumud’s brother) walks into the lane and is suddenly attacked by the four men, stabbed with a knife and killed. The small child, apparently seven or eight years old, watches it and almost without a reaction, turns away and covers his face. 

Human Civilization is based on compassion and sensitivity towards the plight of fellow human beings. It is fed by a reassurance that people will not harm or exploit each other and is nurtured by reciprocal altruism. In slums, when human life gets depraved to the extent that crime does not affect people as unusual, it is one of the surest signs of a civilizational decay. Indian civilization is one of the most precious assets of its inhabitants. As erstwhile villages of India get converted into slums, this precious asset is coming under threat today.

The Informal Tag, the Neglect of Economy & Indian Aspirations

Dharavi is not just about slums. More importantly, it depicts the plight of migrant workers, who come to Mumbai seeking livelihood. Unable to find a job, many of them attempt self employment. Unfortunately, the lack of working capital often prevents them from succeeding. Even more unfortunate is the fact that the policymakers have not been able to help or facilitate these underprivileged entrepreneurs in any meaningful manner, even though they leave no stone unturned in ensuring financial access to large industries owned by billionaires who usually invest with borrowed money and invariably recover their investment by pledging their shares even when their company becomes bankrupt. 

It is fully known that the so called formal economy, consisting of Government and large industries is incapable of creating jobs even for a small fraction of the workforce in India, over half of which continues to be employed in agriculture or related activities. Since ancient times, micro enterprises including those run within households had been the greatest strength of Indian economy, until they were destroyed from the combined onslaught of unfair policy exploitation and competition from larger industrialized units during the colonial period. The independent Indian state is theoretically sympathetic to their cause, but is unable to put in place policies that can help and facilitate such micro entrepreneurship. On the contrary, the maze of bureaucratic regulations and restrictions often has the effect of converting such micro-entrepreneurship illegal adventures.

Epilogue

DHARAVI is a case study that every policy maker must see and analyze, to understand one of the greatest challenges in managing Indian economy. With a workforce of nearly 800 million and a strong demographic dividend on its side, India has the potential to take unprecedented economic strides. All that needs to be understood is the fact that opportunity cost of unemployed labor is zero. Thus, any and every entrepreneurship in India is always profitable in economic terms, even if the financial statements do not depict that in the bottom line.