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Over 1.4 billion people live in India. In Bombay, as the city grows rich and expands, slums multiply. Between the two, the middle class lives in cramped conditions. Reporting.
Sprawling and fascinating, Bombay, India’s economic capital, has experienced one of the strongest demographic growths in the country in recent years: eight million additional inhabitants in 30 years. Traffic jams are increasing, pollution is exploding and access to drinking water is lacking. In the big stations of the metropolis, millions of workers cross paths during rush hours. The trains are so crowded that they have to travel with the doors open.
Intense pressure on real estate
As the population increases, real estate prices explode, due to high demand. In some districts, they reach 10,000 euros per m2. The poorest are finding it increasingly difficult to find housing. Makarand Tasgaonkar, a 52-year-old social worker, lives with his whole family in 14m2. “We would like to move, but we don’t have the means. Neither to buy, nor even to rent“, he laments. Even the middle class is struggling to find housing. In the heart of the slums, there are now engineers, teachers or traders.
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