What's a slum? In India, Dharavi's thriving informal economy defies the label


MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Malik Abdullah's plastic recycling business in Dharavi, the sprawling slum in Mumbai that is among the largest in Asia, has survived fire, building collapses, and the criminal underworld for decades. Now, it is threatened by development.

For 35 years, Abdullah has carried on the business built by his father, pulverising used plastic cans and bottles into pellets, then selling them to factories to refashion.

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