Confrontational Mumbai

I have reached the end of my stay in Mumbai and am taking the nighttrain to Goa. I 've spent a week here and I still feel like I haven't seen it all. I guess I'll have to come back... and I will. I like Mumbai!
But at the same time I hate it. When you first arrive you are blown away by the bright lights and the Western feel and look of the city and the Mumbaikers. But gradually you start seeing through the attractive facades and you see the underbelly of Mumbai. It's a city where officially 18 million people live, but the truth is that they estimate that 60 million people is the real amount of people living here. So 42 million people living here are not registered. Four times Belgium is living here without officially counting as a Mumbai citizen. But then who are they? Well, they are just about everybody in this country who comes down to Mumbai looking for a better life.
Some of them are working, long hours for little pay... but they figure it's better than nothing. One older man I met has been working here for 16 years as a tour guide. He visits his family in the East somewhere in the jungle, one month a year. His kids are grown up and he has one grandchild he hasn't seen yet. But what can he do, there are no jobs where he is from and here at least he makes enough money for himself and to send some home. Imagine being away from your wife and children for years on end... just to be able to provide?!
Another group lives in the slums, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, it depends on which one. You see, there are two types of slums.
The old slums, filled with Mumbai people or people who have been here for decades. Some of them have become villages on their own. There is a post office, there are street names and the people earn some money through crafts. Some have even managed to set up small factories in the slums and are making life better for themselves, their children and their neighbors. They can afford to send their kids to school and some of the younger people even have fairly decent jobs in big companies like in banks or for the government. These slums are gradually becoming more and more upgraded. There is a lot to do about this, because the land these slums are on is officially nobodies. The land used to be water and through the dumping of waste and the bric-a-brac from the people the land is now vast and build upon. So who's is it? For now, the government is claiming it. It's worth a lot of money in this overcrowded city and of course government officials see how this land can be very productive, so there is the ever hanging threat that they will sell it to private companies. And then where do these people go? Back to the slums? Huh?
And of course there are new slums, at the edges of the city. This is where the new people end up. This is not a part of town where you and I go. When you book a tourist tour, they will take you to the slums, but it will be an old slum... a better slum... a safe slum. The others are not for publication. You don't want to know what happens there and you surely don't want to see. Image the most horrible things and that's what it's like. Or at least that's what I think it's like. Because I've seen some pretty horrible things on the street open and blank already, without shame... so I don't even want to think about what's hidden. There's burn-victims begging for money, young girls with babies on their arms begging, children hardly older than 1 year who can barely walk but know when to hold up their little hands when tourists pass, whole families living on the street, in every corner, behind every building, in front of every temple, in between fences... they are everywhere!!
And yesterday it really hit me. A young man came up to me and asked me if I wanted a tour of the city? He was a tourist guide or so he claimed. I told him 'No' and walked on. So he kept following me... "ma'am, you need change money... No... you need tickets, train, bus... No... you need hash, drugs... No... you need company... No... you like Indian men... No... you want boys... No... girls..." He offered me just about anything. So I asked him to 'please' leave me alone, and he did, turned around and went up to the next tourist. Leaving me shocked! Did he just offer me children?! Children? For what? To do what? Well, to do whatever you want! Because many people's lives are worth nothing in this city. The city tours take you to the slums and the Red Light District where 13-year old girls stand along the street working and they sell it as an attraction, but in reality this is where most people in Mumbai live and 'work' and it is NOT a pretty sight. I didn't go on a tour like that. And tourists should stop going on those tours and they should stop giving money to beggars, because that is what makes 'begging' lucrative and so there will always be people around to exploit that. I felt bad ignoring so many people the past few days, but somehow it's the best thing to do. It's not up to tourists to give these people a better life. It's up to India to take care of it's citizens. I have no idea how they will ever change this situation, with the overpopulation making it worse and worse as the years pass, but some things are gonna have to change... soon! I just hope the world is ready for that!