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Over an extended period, threatening phone calls recurred. Originally, allegedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, subsequently from law enforcement directly. In the end, a local artisan asserts he was summoned to the local precinct and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be demolished and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is unparalleled in the globe," explains Shaikh. "But they want to dismantle our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the neighborhood. Residences are constructed informally and typically lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is filled with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of premium apartments, neat parks, contemporary malls and residences with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, 56, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The single option is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

However, some, like Shaikh, are opposing the project.

All recognize that the slum, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. But they are concerned that this plan – lacking community input – might convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have lived there since generations ago.

This involved these excluded, displaced people who built up the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and business activity, whose output is estimated at between one million dollars and a substantial sum annually, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately a million residents living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer zone, fewer than half will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, risking fragment a generations-old community. A portion will receive no residences at all.

Those allowed to stay in the neighborhood will be provided apartments in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the evolved, collective approach of residing and operating that has maintained Dharavi for generations.

Businesses from garment work to clay work and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" distant from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For residents like Shaikh, a leather artisan and third generation of his family to call home this community, the project presents an existential threat. His informal, three-floor facility produces garments – tailored coats, luxury coats, fashionable garments – distributed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and overseas.

His family resides in the accommodations below and laborers and sewers – migrants from north India – reside there, permitting him to sustain operations. Outside Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are typically significantly more expensive for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the administrative buildings nearby, a visual representation of the transformation initiative shows an alternative perspective. Fashionable inhabitants gather on cycles and electric vehicles, buying western-style bread and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area near a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This is not progress for residents," explains Shaikh. "It's a huge real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the conglomerate has faced accusations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Even as the state government describes it as a joint project, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit alleging that the initiative was questionably assigned to the corporation is being considered in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – involving messages, explicit warnings and suggestions that speaking against the project was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by people they allege work for the developer.

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