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Over an extended period, intimidating communications continued. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident claims he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is part of a group opposing a expensive project where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be demolished and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of this area is unparalleled in the globe," says the protester. "Yet the plan aims to destroy our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of this community stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that dominate the neighborhood. Residences are built haphazardly and frequently without proper sanitation, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the air is permeated by the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

To some, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream come true.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, roads or sewage systems and we have no places for kids to enjoy," explains a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from his home state in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

But others, such as the leather artisan, are resisting the project.

None deny that this community, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. But they worry that this plan – lacking resident participation – could potentially turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who established the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and commercial output, whose output is worth between one million dollars and $2m annually, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly one million people living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take a significant period to finish. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the remote edges of the city, potentially fragment a generations-old community. A portion will not get residences at all.

People eligible to continue living in the area will be provided units in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the evolved, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has maintained Dharavi for generations.

Industries from tailoring to ceramic crafts and waste processing are likely to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "business area" far from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as this protester, a leather artisan and multi-generational resident to reside in the slum, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His rickety, three-storey workshop produces apparel – tailored coats, suede trenches, decorated jackets – distributed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Household members resides in the accommodations below and his workers and sewers – laborers from different regions – reside on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Outside Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are frequently significantly as high for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the official facilities in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project illustrates an alternative outlook. Fashionable residents gather on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, acquiring international baguettes and pastries and socializing on an outdoor area outside a coffee shop and treat station. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that supports Dharavi's community.

"This is not development for residents," explains Shaikh. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will price people out for residents to remain."

There is also distrust of the business conglomerate. Run by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the government head – the business group has faced accusations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Although local authorities describes it as a partnership, the developer invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings alleging that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the business group is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the redevelopment, protesters and community members assert they have been faced a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – comprising messages, clear intimidation and suggestions that criticizing the initiative was equivalent to opposing national interests – by people they allege work for the corporate group.

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