Krishna and his British partner at Reality Tours run a school in Dharavi. He told me that the children liked Slumdog Millionaire - they saw the Hindi version - but hated the name "slumdog", as do slumdweller organisations. This is understandable. The term was invented by the screenwriter, Simon Beaufoy, who seems to have ignorantly assumed that it would be believable as a derogatory but semi-affectionate nickname for young slumdwellers. But even "slumrat" might have been less offensive. You won't ever hear the word "dog" used affectionately in India. Unlike monkeys, elephants and of course cows, dogs have no religious significance and are disliked by both Muslims and Hindus. There are stray dogs everywhere you look in most Indian cities; though rarely dangerous, they are feared and persecuted. In 2007 the city of Bangalore sponsored the mass killing of tens of thousands of them.

The land beneath Dharavi is potentially enormously valuable. The municipality has a multibillion-dollar plan to demolish it, sell it to developers and rehouse those inhabitants who can prove they were living there before 2000. There is considerable opposition to the plan within the slum: the government promises to provide only 265 square feet per family and many jobs will be lost if all the factories and workshops are demolished.

The "legal" slums - those squatter camps and shantytowns that existed before 1995 - have a theoretical right to basic services, including water, sanitation, policing, the fire brigade and rubbish disposal. These services may be provided only fitfully and inadequately, but in places like Dharavi, water flows to the standpipes for four hours a day and electricity powers the TVs found even in the tiniest huts. These shantytowns cannot be demolished or moved without warning and compensation. This is not the case for the hundreds of thousands of pavement shacks put up by recent arrivals in the city, or the even poorer people who sleep on rags without any shelter. For them, to live in the slums is a dream.