In the center of Bombay lies Dharavi, the so-called largest slum in Asia after Hong Kong’s infamous Walled City was torn down in 1990. An estimated one million people live in Dharavi at a density of 18,000 per acre. Like the Walled City, Dharavi is a fully functioning community with hundreds of small businesses and industries that produce an estimated half billion dollars’ worth of goods each year, all off the books of course. Shantytowns like Dharavi are scattered all over Bombay and are home to about half of the city’s 13 million residents.

Most families do not have toilets or running water, but democracy is alive and well: voter turnout in local elections is around 80% in the slums. This is partly because who is in charge can mean the difference between having any water or not. In fact, it is thought that one reason these slums continue to survive in the middle of Bombay, where property values can be higher than in Manhattan, is that they are valuable “vote banks” for local politicians.