The Mumbai Dhobi Ghat is a well known open air laundromat in Mumbai, India. The washers, locally known as dhobis, work in the open to wash the clothes from Mumbai's hotels and hospitals. There are rows of open-air concrete wash pens, each fitted with its own flogging stone. Called the world's largest outdoor laundry, Dhobi Ghat is a very popular attraction among foreign tourists.

The phrase "dhobi ghat" is used all over India to refer to any place where many washers are present.

India's largest, and indeed most fascinating dhobi ghat is located next to the Mahalaxmi rail station on the Saat Rasta roundabout in the heart of Mumbai, the magnificent city once known as Bombay.

This dhobi ghat is as fascinating a place as one will ever encounter. It is a huge human-powered mass laundry, where over one thousand washermen, called "dhobis" in Hindi, wash clothes in large concrete wash pens and dry them under an open sky. As more Mumbai families are gaining increasing affluence nowdays, many people can now afford their own washing machines so many of the "dhobis" in this "ghat" are not involved in doing the laundry of Mumbai homes and families. In fact, they are mostly engaged in washing clothes for large, lower-market commercial organizations like restaurants, hospitals or hotels or guest-houses located in the vicinity.

The "dhobi ghat" a true open-air manually-operated laundry, is a surviving relic of Mumbai's past. Generally the position of a "dhobi" is a hereditary profession, with most of the washermen's families working here for the last three generations, their technique changing precious little over that time frame. The soiled clothes are first soaked in boiling water with Caustic Soda and then "flogged" on a slab to get physically rid them of dirt and stains. It is tedious and strenuous work. The dhobis work dawn until dusk in temperatures that exceed 90 degrees farenheit even in winter. The extreme humidy from the nearby Arabian sea certainly doesn't make their occupation any easier.

After drying the laundry in the open, clothes are ironed with age old charcoal presses with heavy wooden handles. It's a great photo opportunity if nothing else, you can get a view from the bridge next to the Mahalaxmi station. Most of the local people find it intriguing that an activity as ordinary as washing arouses such curiosity in the tourists. Still, for a western tourist, a trip to see this enormous Mumbai dhobi ghat is an absolute can't miss experience.

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