New Land of Opportunity

Mumbai's Dharavi slum is the most entrepreneurial place I've ever been. In one dark room--open to the street--there are two men recycling boxes by turning them inside out and re-stapling them. Across the dusty street, six women work together sorting great bins of plastic products for recycling. A few doorways down two men are maniacally sewing brassieres, just like on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1905. A little ways off craftspeople are painting and firing intricately designed ceramics. The UN estimates that 828 million people, which is about 12% of humanity, live in slums in the developing world.