Dharavi's leather district is one of Mumbai's most significant craft and light industrial zones, with hundreds of small tanneries and leather goods workshops producing finished goods that supply domestic and export markets. The tanneries in the Kumbharwada section process raw hides — mainly from the city's slaughterhouses — into leather that is cut and stitched into bags, belts, shoes, and accessories in the adjacent workshops.
Unlike the large industrial tanneries of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, Dharavi's operations are small-scale and family-run. Tours through the leather district are included in most Dharavi guided tours. The finished goods are sold at wholesale prices in the market at the edge of the settlement. The leather work here represents an entire supply chain compressed into a few narrow lanes.