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Airdate: Kevin McCloud: Slumming It

Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud looks at a far more unforgiving home as he travels to the site made famous by the film Slumdog Millionaire.

He’s most popular for Grand Designs, but Kevin McCloud will appear in this journey to India’s largest slum, Mumbai’s Dharavi, made famous by the film Slumdog Millionaire, where disease is rife, water is contaminated and sanitation is basic.

In this two-part series he will experience the beauty and horror of one of the most extreme urban environments on earth.

With one million people crammed into one square mile (2.6 square kilometres), Dharavi is one of Asia’s biggest slums and one of the most densely populated places on the planet.

Dharavi has been hailed by architects, planners and even Prince Charles, as offering solutions to some of our largest Western cities’ biggest problems, like crime, lack of community and of sustainable living.

As Kevin enters Dharavi he finds open sewers, rats and hazardous chemicals everywhere. However, he also discovers that it is a highly organised place with thousands of tiny industries.

Over the first week, he fully immerses himself in slum life – eating, sleeping and washing with people with whom he stays. And in doing so, he discovers an extraordinary sense of spirit and community despite the hardships.

It premieres 8:30pm Tuesday October 26 on ABC1.

5 Responses

  1. The point is ,Kev, they ain;t gonna be offered any thng better, just some crappy medium rise cell blocks which were proven not to work in the west.They are not living in their own filth , they are living in our filth.A good start would be to make some sewer and water pipes ot of that recycled plastic.It would have taken guts on the part of Kevin McLeod to make this doco.He simply tells it how he sees it.

  2. I wonder how much access he had gotten for this show, because like every country they are sensitive about their image. Remember when the chinese government bulldosed the shanty town in rediness for the Olympics in 2008.

  3. I love the way rich westerners visit these places for a short time and always seem to find positives that we could learn from. I’m sure if given half a chance the actual residents would be out like a shot if they were offered something better.

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