The perpetually enduring slum areas of Jakarta are home to more than half of its inhabitants. In Galur, the informal sector comprises of a majority section of people involved in plantation, tofu, tempe industrial units, conveyance using motorbike taxis and three wheelers. Many earn their livelihood working in metal shops or numerous small scale factories and vending food. Pass through tail backed traffic, smutty rivers, air reeking of diesel odours, rail lines to meet up with the real people and how they survive, work and bring up their children.

Experience the ingenuity and innovativeness of the inhabitants of the most impoverished areas of Jakarta, Kampung Pulo located in the core of Ciliwung who despite recurrent flooding and little help from the government are bravely carrying on with their lives with their makeshift dwellings often razed down.

As one spans through the constricted lanes of Galur, halt to take in the sights of gaping rooms where shanty dwellers engage in tofu making by exhuming discarded wood under concrete containers whose miasma hangs heavy off the roof while in other dingy rooms barefooted men drain off the water from bags of tofu and soy bean cakes by sheer weight. Experience the crude hardworking lifestyles of the inhabitants; how they amuse the kiddie brigade with simple devices like bike powdered Ferris wheels among others.

Undertake a ride on a Jakartan train or an angkot to the historically significant Kota that has a majority deprived populace to chat along with locals delving into their lives, characters and stories, passing through the fish mart of Pasar Ikan for its interesting assortment of views, hums,  personalities and tales.

A truly soul stirring, sombre experience not intended for the weak-hearted where one truly learns to value what one has and in how many ways one can contribute to betterment of the underprivileged.

Dharavi is not simply a slum but a significant node on the worldwide economy generating approximate annual revenue of 665million dollars through its wide array of manufactured products like ceramics, leather items, tapestry, plastic items, bluejeans amongst several others.

Dharavi with its large squatter populace is flanked by two rail lines on a creek in the north Mumbai that originally was a flourishing fishery. Traipse through the squalid alleys of Dharavi to explore to true backbone of Mumbai though poor is bound to humble many a souls with its bolt of reality in good measure.

Explore the plastic and metal reprocessing pits of the thirteenth compound located on the eastern side of Mahim Station where one view weighty gear liquefy and cast plastic balls to be transformed into Indian Barbie dolls by several makers.

Get a firsthand account of the tales of Khumbarwada that is home to the original inhabitants of Dharavi, the potter society hailing from Gujarat who had laid base here in 1930 with their collective clay wells and ovens.

The appetizing whiffs of petite bakeries and sweet meat shops, the interesting odours of soaps, cosmetics, perfumeries coupled with the sights of tiny cyber cafes, tailors busy on their sewing machines, small movie parlours that have regular shows of happening Bollywood movies, bars, open air barber shops and the eager children gesturing from their steep loggias.

Venturing through narrow alleys, with huge stretching junkyards, mishmash of stone and concrete dwellings one comes to the jarred realization that despite the glaring twaddle the seemingly systematically arranged 10,000 mostly unregulated industries in varying alleys that provide the inhabitants with jobs depict positivity. Small sized warehouses are used for several activities like tearing down of old computer parts, removal of ball pen cases for reuse, residue removal from metallic casks, foundries and tanneries.

With Mumbai boasting of the steepest real estate and rental prices, Dharavi in comparison has rental options dipping as much as four dollars or over two pounds a month, with even the undersized rooms having basic amenities of gas and electricity, though there no apparent garbage management facility in sight with just one toilet being available for every 1,440 persons.

Dharavi has as much as half of Mumbai’s eighteen million inhabitants living in its significantly set up slums, a visit through which will dispute the stereotypic image many have of the poor as majorly being criminals or no good.

One can undertake a guided tour known as the Reality Tours through Dharavi wherein the money obtained from the tours are directed to running an educational centre for the underprivileged. The morning and afternoon tours comprise of long stretching walks escorted by guides wherein one is enthralled by numerous interesting facets one gets to view and listen.

Dharavi comes across as a place where individuals honestly work hard for a living, struggling to make ends meet.