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Across several weeks, intimidating messages persisted. At first, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, and then from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is part of a group opposing a multimillion-dollar project where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – faces bulldozed and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the globe," says the resident. "However they want to eradicate our community and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of this community stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the neighborhood. Dwellings are assembled randomly and frequently missing basic amenities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the environment is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, paved pathways or sewage systems and there are no spaces for children to play," explains A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who relocated from southern India in that period. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

But others, including the leather artisan, are resisting the project.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is in stark need economic input and modernization. However they worry that this plan – without resident participation – is one that will convert premium city property into a playground for the rich, evicting the marginalized, working-class residents who have resided there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, relocated individuals who established the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of community resilience and business activity, whose economic value is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum per year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about a million people living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be qualified for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to finish. Others will be transferred to barren areas and salt plains on the remote edges of the metropolis, threatening to divide a historic social network. A portion will not get residences at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the area will be provided units in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the natural, shared lifestyle of living and working that has maintained this area for so long.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are projected to shrink in number and be transferred to a designated "business area" far from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For those such as this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational of his family to live in this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, multi-level workshop creates garments – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – distributed in premium stores in south Mumbai and internationally.

Relatives dwells in the accommodations underneath and laborers and garment workers – laborers from north India – live there, permitting him to sustain operations. Away from the slum, housing costs are typically significantly costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

In the government offices close by, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows an alternative perspective. Slickly dressed inhabitants mill about on cycles and electric vehicles, purchasing western-style baked goods and pastries and socializing on a terrace adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and treat station. It is a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains the neighborhood.

"This is not progress for residents," states the protester. "It represents a massive real estate deal that will price people out for our community to continue."

There is also distrust of the development company. Managed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it denies.

Although administrative bodies labels it a joint project, the business group paid nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A case stating that the project was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents state they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising phone calls, direct threats and implications that opposing the initiative was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by figures they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

Part of the group suspected of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c