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Across several weeks, coercive phone calls recurred. Initially, reportedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, later from the authorities. Finally, a local artisan states he was called to the police station and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is among those fighting a multimillion-dollar initiative where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the world," states the resident. "But they want to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and elite residences that overshadow the area. Residences are constructed informally and often without proper sanitation, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the air is permeated by the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"We lack proper healthcare, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," states A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, like the leather artisan, are resisting the project.

All recognize that the slum, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. But they fear that this initiative – without public consultation – is one that will turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since the nineteenth century.

It was these excluded, displaced people who developed the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and business activity, whose economic value is worth between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately one million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, a minority will be eligible for replacement housing in the project, which is estimated to take a significant period to finish. Others will be moved to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of the metropolis, potentially break up a historic social network. A portion will receive no residences at all.

People eligible to continue living in the area will be provided units in tower blocks, a substantial change from the evolved, communal way of residing and operating that has sustained Dharavi for so long.

Commercial activities from clothing production to ceramic crafts and waste processing are projected to reduce in scale and be moved to an allocated "industrial sector" separated from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as Shaikh, a leather artisan and multi-generational resident to live in the slum, the plan presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor workshop creates garments – tailored coats, suede trenches, decorated jackets – marketed in high-end shops in south Mumbai and internationally.

Relatives dwells in the accommodations below and his workers and garment workers – laborers from different regions – also sleep on-site, permitting him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often 10 times costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the official facilities close by, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project shows an alternative perspective. Fashionable inhabitants gather on cycles and eco-friendly transport, buying western-style baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a terrace near a restaurant and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that supports Dharavi's community.

"This is not development for our community," explains the artisan. "It represents an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists concern of the corporate group. Headed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a close ally of the government head – the corporation has been subject to claims of favoritism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

While the state government describes it as a partnership, the business group invested $950m for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the developer is being considered in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the project, local opponents claim they have been experienced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – involving communications, clear intimidation and suggestions that speaking against the project was comparable with opposing national interests – by people they allege are associated with the corporate group.

Included in these accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c