Motivational Speaker News

Kevin McCloud embarked on a journey to live, work, sleep and eat in the after hearing claims that may hold the answers to some of the problems facing our society in order to lift the lid.

The Dharavi slums in Mumbai provided the backdrop to last year's Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. It is home to between 600,000 and one million people who are crammed into a 520-acre site. Disease is rife and it is estimated that there is one lavatory for every 1,400 residents.

Kevin Mcloud known for channel 4's Grand Designs and as a keynote motivational speaker was there to film Slumming It, part of Channel 4's Indian Winter season. He has said that his experiences of life in Dharavi could teach Britain a great deal about "social sustainability".

"A room has several functions. You can take a space and extend it out to a balcony and into the public realm. Because women don't have huge kitchens, they rinse their pots in the street. That has to be the most civilised, sociable way of doing the washing-up - outside in the sun, chatting to your neighbours."

"There is a tremendously elastic attitude to what is theirs, what they own and how they work in and use space," he said of the slum residents, who live side by side in corrugated iron shacks.

"We should stop looking at property as pornography or an investment, and instead think of it as our home, and that home being next to another home, and those together being part of a community."

"It's all about people sharing things. It's about making sure people are happy where they are living and content to stay there, rather than treat their home as an isolated box that is part of their pension plan or investment portfolio."
Kevin Mcloud lived with a 21-strong family during his stay, all of whom had "perfect teeth and hair" despite their surroundings.

Describing the communal laundry area, he said: "Professional washers stand knee-deep in grey water all day whacking clothes against the slabs. That water comes from a little creek that runs under the railway line. There are dead animals, rubbish and pollution floating in it. Yet those clothes get amazingly pressed and everyone's dressed smartly."

The keynote motivational speaker and presenter suggests that, for all the millions of pounds spent on designing eco-towns - the Government's answer to Britain's housing shortage - ministers could learn about creating happy communities from the slums of Mumbai.

"I've come back with a sense of renewed hope about how we can do that," McCloud said. "If I have one message for developers and the Government, it's to focus less on eco-housing and green buildings - because, frankly, we know how to do that. Let's start focusing on the social stuff, on how we can make people happier."