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Across several weeks, threatening communications persisted. At first, allegedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, later from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was called to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a expensive project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is exceptional in the globe," says Shaikh. "Yet they want to dismantle our community and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the settlement. Dwellings are assembled randomly and frequently missing basic amenities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future come true.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, proper streets or drainage and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, like Shaikh, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that this community, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need economic input and modernization. But they worry that this initiative – without public consultation – is one that will turn premium city property into a luxury development, forcing out the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have resided there since generations ago.

It was these marginalized, migrant workers who established the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is worth between one million dollars and $2m annually, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately 1 million residents living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, a minority will be qualified for replacement housing in the project, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. Additional residents will be relocated to barren areas and salt plains on the far outskirts of Mumbai, risking fragment a long-established neighborhood. Some will be denied housing at all.

Those allowed to stay in Dharavi will be provided flats in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of residing and operating that has maintained the community for so long.

Businesses from tailoring to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to reduce in scale and be transferred to a specific "business area" distant from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a workshop owner and long-time resident to reside in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-storey facility creates apparel – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

His family resides in the accommodations below and employees and garment workers – migrants from north India – live in the same building, permitting him to afford their labour. Away from Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are often tenfold costlier for a single room.

Threats and Warning

In the administrative buildings close by, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project depicts an alternative perspective. Fashionable people move around on bicycles and e-vehicles, buying western-style baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a terrace adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't development for our community," says the artisan. "This constitutes a massive land development that will render it impossible for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's concern of the development company. Run by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the government head – the business group has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

While administrative bodies labels it a partnership, the developer paid $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to actively protest the development, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including phone calls, direct threats and implications that speaking against the initiative was equivalent to speaking against the country – by people they assert are associated with the corporate group.

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