Dharavi, in Mumbai, India
Posted on 09/08/2009 6:10:47 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Backdrop to the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, has been displaced by Orangi in Karachi as Asia's largest slum, according to a new development report.
The report, compiled by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation with assistance from the United National Development Programme, found that while Dharavi has 57,000 families living in overcrowded huts with poor sanitation, Orangi on the outskirts of Karachi is home to more than a million people living in poverty.
Dharavi, in Mumbai, India
Since the release of Slumdog Millionaire earlier this year, Dharavi's notoriety has become global, and its inhabitants have been identified with malnutrition, disease, violence, child slavery, begging and organised crime.
But the Brihanmumbai report said its reputation was no longer justified. "Dharavi is not Asia's largest slum, Karachi's Orangi Township has surpassed Dharavi," it claimed.
Orangi has become notorious in its own right as an illegal settlement where rival ethnic Pathan and Bihari gangs clash and Islamic terrorists go into hiding. Its people are denied government social services because it has no official status.
But Parveen Rehman, of the Orangi Pilot Project, said the word "slum" did not do justice to its hard-working people, who had developed their own welfare system.
"People are poor but they are not destitute, they're working class. It's one of the poorest settlements. People have arranged their own schools, clinics and water supply. They are a great example of people helping themselves.
"The biggest problems are security and employment. It is a hide out for terrorists and criminals. It's easy to disappear here," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Does Valerie Jarrett know about this opportunity?
We are #1!!!!
Hmm... I guess they will have to repurpose all those “We’re Number 1!” signs now.
But are they saying that Orangi is also a classier slum?
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