Selling India's slums

By Karishma Vaswani Business correspondent, BBC News, Mumbai

People living here were warned one day before the bulldozers moved in

Destruction in the name of development.

Bulldozers race through Shanti Nagar - a slum in Northern Mumbai, on a cloudy, overcast monsoon morning.

Shanty homes and shacks are destroyed.

It is all part of Mumbai's plans to give itself a facelift.

The city's government plans to turn this slum into a jogging boulevard.

Better and safer

Mumbai's police were out in full force at the demolition.

Where will I go in this rain, with my small children? I have no where to live Slum dweller Sukhya Devi

Many slum dwellers often resort to violence to protect their homes.

The man in charge of the demolition, MJ Vazirani, says the slum's inhabitants have been given a day's notice to collect their belongings and move out of their properties.

"We have provided many of these slum dwellers, those who have documentation to show they came to Mumbai before 1995, with alternative housing," he says.

"They will get better homes to live in - council flats, that are safer, better built, with running water and electricity. Why wouldn't they want to move into these homes?"

Broken homes

But for those who don't have documents to prove their residential status, it is Mumbai's streets that will provide shelter.

Two thirds of Mumbai's people live in slums

On the day after the slum demolition in Shanti Nagar, all that was left of shacks that once were homes to thousands of Mumbai's slum dwellers, were debris and broken belongings of the inhabitants.

Sukhya Devi had lived in Shanti Nagar for 15 years.

She spent the previous night in the rain, on the footpaths of Mumbai with her three children.

Now, all that is left of her old home is a plastic bottle and her rice sieve.

She has been promised a new home by city officials, but she has yet to receive the keys.

"I was returning from the market when Mumbai government officials and the police came to tell me of the 24 hour notice period," she says.

"I have been promised a home, but until I get it, where will I go in this rain, with my small children? I have nowhere to live."

From slum to plum

Mumbai is facing a crisis.

The Indian financial capital is home to 15 million people - officially.

Redeveloping Dharavi will become an engine for economic development Mukesh Mehta is the architect responsible for remaking Dharavi

Two thirds of its population live in slums.

Dharavi, Asia's largest slum, is home to many of Mumbai's slum dwellers.

It sprawls over almost 2 square kilometres - and sits in the centre of Mumbai, on prime property.

Part of the city's plans to give itself a makeover involve turning Dharavi into a commercially running tourist destination - with housing for the slum's inhabitants, a hospital, schools, a golf course, and India's largest cricket ground.

The project is projected to cost $2bn (£1.1bn), and it will be a public private partnership.

Already, some of India's biggest property developers have expressed interest in rebuilding Dharavi.

Mukesh Mehta is the architect responsible for remaking Dharavi. He wants to make Mumbai slum free by 2020.

"The slum dwellers of Dharavi - and of Mumbai - need to be integrated into mainstream society," he says.

"They are not scoundrels or ruffians. They are enterprising, hardworking people who have come here to make a better life for themselves and their families.

"If we give them surroundings that are dignified, they will live a more dignified life. And redeveloping Dharavi will become an engine for economic development."

And it is economic development that brings thousands of new migrants to Mumbai every single day.

This is how the city has been built. Many of its wealthy tycoons had humble beginnings. Mumbai's makeover must include these migrants too.