I Lived In The Slums Of Mumbai For 5 Days And This Experience Opened My Eyes

I would disagree that he is treating it like a tourist attraction, he has been there before, and wanted to understand more about life in the slums than just the stereotypes. So he spent time there talking with the people, and would have contributed to the community through rent and food etc while he was there. The slums in Mumbai are a huge part of that city (I'm sure the last figures I saw it was over 40% of the population of greater Mumbai lived in them), so unless you think people should be restricted to only seeing the wealthy parts, it's better that people spend time there and interact with the people, than just pass by taking photos on a tour and thinking it's just a terrible crime ridden place.

I COMPLETELY AGREE. I was cringing with discomfort through this whole article. The worst part was the guy championing his realization that the people living there are Actual people and have value equal to all other people.

Thank you! I was hoping for this comment. Poor people don't exist for rich people to play poverty with for a while before returning to their normal lives. You have the option to leave the slum at any time. They don't. Your experience is not the same.

Luther, I think it's good to be wary of people's motives in situations like these, but it seems clear that the OP is neither being condescending nor is he exotifying the lives of the people he met. On the contrary, he is humanizing a group of people who are generally overlooked and shunned. I believe OP has actually done a good thing--by raising awareness and crossing boundaries with kindness and humility.

After reading many peoples' responses and considering what they said, I stand by it. This is a white, priviliged college boy who played poor for a few days and learned that "we should all make the best of things". That's bullsh*t. People who are poor are poor because other people are rich. Instead of saying "it's great that the poor can manage to be happy once in a while", the compassionate response is to try to alleviate poverty. Maybe this guy went on to do some real work, but this article is condesending as hell.

Yet if those with privilege are not aware of the underprivileged, you would have no funding. Awareness is always necessary.

I am surprised that your obviously rude comment is not removed. Seriously! He is just there trying to understand the world even more and learn from it. From his post I have seen a more detailed view of poorest parts if the world and what we can learn from it. I don't understand how your comment even have a meaning at all.

I'm not absolutely sure, and the fact that I'm an Indian doesn't make me right, but I have an answer for your question. One word, corruption. First of all, yes, if you ever have thought that we throw trash just anywhere, you're right, we do. Although we don't prefer to throw garbage everywhere. There's a general lack of morality and a common sense for hygiene. But people nowadays are more responsible, many of us have started cleaning places/grounds etc. Secondly, The amount of money that is sanctioned for maintaining general cleanliness in these areas, is often put away in personal vaults of corrupt, and to some extent absolute a*****e politicians and government officials.

May be you missed the caption, Its a Slum. The biggest slum in the world. I google'd it "Dharavi", and was blown by sheer size and other things related to it. In India trash is a serious problem I guess, with almost non-existent recycling facilities all the garbage is dumped like this. You can imagine living in a place where for 1000 people they have only 1 toilet(as per above article). But author is correct in pointing out in one thing, no matter where you go, no matter how poor people are, they are same, same needs, same ambitions!

The Indian government doesn't give a s**t about it's poorest and is apparently incapabale or unwilling to organize even basic trash collection and garbage disposal services. The areas where middle class or rich people live are spotless, but there, the waste disposal is often organized by the corporation that built and maintains the district.

All too often slums grow around landfills, that may well be the case here

Where do you suggest they put the trash?

Poverty porn was the phrase used. People always assume "he had good intentions" means they aren't participating in a demeaning engagement of the people who live there. 2 days then 5 days does not make you an expert on these people or their culture. This isn't a cute, lighthearted, or enlightening post. It's pandering and patronizing. If you're this concerned, we have plenty of poverty in the US. Stop going overseas to brown nations with this bs.

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Yes, a lot of the people of the slums were really positive about life - oftentimes more positive than a lot of the people in the West who had very comfortable lives.