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Across several weeks, intimidating phone calls continued. Originally, allegedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, subsequently from the authorities. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to the local precinct and warned explicitly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is part of a group fighting a expensive redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces bulldozed and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of the slum is unparalleled in the globe," says the protester. "Yet they want to eradicate our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the settlement. Homes are assembled randomly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the air is saturated with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

For certain residents, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and homes with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision come true.

"We lack proper healthcare, roads or sewage systems and we have no places for kids to enjoy," states a chai seller, fifty-six, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, such as Shaikh, are resisting the plan.

None deny that this community, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing investment and development. But they worry that this initiative – absent of community input – could potentially transform valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since the late 1800s.

These were these marginalized, migrant workers who built up the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose economic value is valued at between one million dollars and two million dollars annually, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly 1 million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is expected to take a significant period to complete. The remainder will be moved to barren areas and coastal regions on the far outskirts of Mumbai, threatening to divide a generations-old neighborhood. Some will not get residences at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in Dharavi will be allocated apartments in tower blocks, a major break from the organic, collective approach of living and working that has sustained the community for generations.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a specific "industrial sector" far from residential areas.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a leather artisan and multi-generational inhabitant to live in the slum, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-floor workshop produces leather coats – formal jackets, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

His family lives in the accommodations underneath and employees and garment workers – workers from different regions – reside in the same building, permitting him to manage costs. Beyond the slum, housing costs are often tenfold costlier for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

At the official facilities in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative depicts a very different vision for the future. Fashionable inhabitants gather on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, purchasing western-style bread and croissants and socializing on an outdoor area near a coffee shop and treat station. This depicts a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not progress for residents," states the artisan. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will render it impossible for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's concern of the corporate group. Run by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities calls it a joint project, the corporation paid a significant amount for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the business group is being considered in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members state they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and insinuations that criticizing the project was equivalent to opposing national interests – by people they allege represent the business conglomerate.

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