The Urban Opportunity Project, a research initiative of the Institute of Design at IIT Chicago, has provided the scope for adopting a collaborative approach of working between ID Chicago, IIT Bombay, and non-governmental organisations like the Society for Human and Environmental Development (S.H.E.D.) in Mumbai. This collaborative approach has enabled the acquisition of true and valuable insights on the livelihoods in city slums. Dharavi was taken as a specimen for the study.