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For months, coercive messages continued. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, subsequently from the police themselves. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a high-value initiative where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of Dharavi is exceptional in the planet," says the resident. "Yet the plan aims to eradicate our community and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the neighborhood. Dwellings are constructed informally and often without proper sanitation, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of open sewers.

For certain residents, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and residences with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future come true.

"We lack sufficient health services, proper streets or water management and we have no places for kids to enjoy," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who moved from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, such as Shaikh, are opposing the project.

None deny that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. But they fear that this initiative – lacking resident participation – might turn valuable urban land into an elite enclave, displacing the marginalized, immigrant populations who have lived there since the late 1800s.

These were these shunned, displaced people who built up the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between a significant amount and $2m a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, a minority will be eligible for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to finish. Others will be relocated to wastelands and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially divide a historic neighborhood. A portion will be denied housing at all.

People eligible to remain in Dharavi will be given apartments in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the evolved, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has sustained Dharavi for so long.

Industries from tailoring to ceramic crafts and waste processing are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to an allocated "commercial zone" far from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as the leather artisan, a leather artisan and third generation inhabitant to reside in this community, the project presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, multi-level workshop produces leather coats – tailored coats, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Household members lives in the accommodations underneath and laborers and garment workers – migrants from different regions – live on-site, permitting him to afford their labour. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often significantly as high for a single room.

Threats and Warning

Within the official facilities close by, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan shows a very different outlook. Slickly dressed people mill about on cycles and e-vehicles, buying continental baguettes and croissants and having coffee on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that maintains the neighborhood.

"This isn't development for our community," explains the artisan. "It's an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists concern of the development company. Run by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a close ally of the government head – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it denies.

Even as local authorities describes it as a joint project, the corporation paid $950m for its majority share. Legal proceedings stating that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to an extended period of coercion and warning – including phone calls, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the initiative was tantamount to opposing national interests – by people they assert work for the developer.

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