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For months, coercive communications persisted. Initially, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, later from law enforcement directly. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is part of a group fighting a expensive project where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the planet," states the resident. "But the plan aims to destroy our way of life and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Homes are constructed informally and often lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is saturated with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and residences with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, such as this protester, are resisting the plan.

None deny that the slum, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. But they worry that this initiative – lacking community input – might transform premium city property into a playground for the rich, forcing out the marginalized, migrant communities who have lived there since generations ago.

It was these excluded, migrant workers who established the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and commercial output, whose production is estimated at between one million dollars and a substantial sum per year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly a million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare area, less than 50% will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of the metropolis, risking break up a generations-old community. A portion will be denied homes at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the area will be provided flats in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the organic, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has supported this area for generations.

Industries from clothing production to clay work and recycling are projected to decrease in quantity and be moved to a designated "commercial zone" far from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For those such as the leather artisan, a leather artisan and multi-generational inhabitant to reside in Dharavi, the project presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey operation makes apparel – formal jackets, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Household members lives in the spaces underneath and laborers and tailors – migrants from different regions – live there, allowing him to manage costs. Outside Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are typically 10 times costlier for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the government offices close by, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan depicts a contrasting perspective. Fashionable inhabitants move around on cycles and eco-friendly transport, acquiring western-style bread and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This depicts a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This represents no development for us," says the artisan. "This constitutes a massive real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the national leader – the business group has encountered allegations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Although administrative bodies describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group invested $950m for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the project was questionably assigned to the developer is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to publicly resist the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, clear intimidation and suggestions that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by people they assert work for the corporate group.

Among those alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c