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Across several weeks, intimidating phone calls persisted. At first, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, later from law enforcement directly. In the end, a local artisan states he was ordered to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is part of a group fighting a high-value project where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be bulldozed and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is exceptional in the world," says the protester. "Yet the plan aims to eradicate our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of the slum present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the settlement. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the environment is filled with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and residences with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, paved pathways or sewage systems and there are no spaces for children to play," states a chai seller, 56, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, like Shaikh, are resisting the project.

None deny that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. But they fear that this initiative – absent of public consultation – could potentially convert premium city property into a playground for the rich, evicting the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since generations ago.

These were these excluded, relocated individuals who built up the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and commercial output, whose economic value is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum annually, making it a major informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the dense 220-hectare area, a minority will be qualified for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is projected to take a significant period to finish. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the far outskirts of the metropolis, risking break up a generations-old neighborhood. Some will not get homes at all.

People eligible to stay in the neighborhood will be given apartments in high-rise buildings, a major break from the organic, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has sustained Dharavi for generations.

Commercial activities from tailoring to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "business area" far from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of the leather artisan, a leather artisan and third generation inhabitant to live in this community, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His rickety, three-storey facility produces garments – formal jackets, luxury coats, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

Household members resides in the spaces underneath and laborers and garment workers – migrants from north India – also sleep on-site, allowing him to sustain operations. Outside the slum, Mumbai rents are frequently significantly as high for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices nearby, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project illustrates a very different outlook. Slickly dressed people gather on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, buying international bread and pastries and enlisting beverages on a patio outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This depicts a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not development for residents," states the protester. "It's a huge land development that will price people out for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the national leader – the business group has encountered allegations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it denies.

Although local authorities describes it as a partnership, the business group paid $950m for its majority share. Legal proceedings claiming that the initiative was improperly granted to the business group is pending in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to publicly resist the development, local opponents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – comprising messages, explicit warnings and insinuations that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by figures they assert work for the corporate group.

Part of the group accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c