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Over an extended period, threatening phone calls persisted. At first, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is part of a group opposing a high-value project where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be bulldozed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of the slum is unparalleled in the globe," explains the resident. "However their intention is to eradicate our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that dominate the neighborhood. Dwellings are assembled randomly and typically without proper sanitation, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and apartments with two toilets is an optimistic future achieved.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or drainage and there's nowhere for children to play," says a tea vendor, in his fifties, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The only way is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, like the leather artisan, are resisting the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. However they are concerned that this plan – lacking public consultation – might turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, forcing out the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since the late 1800s.

This involved these excluded, displaced people who established the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and business activity, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and a substantial sum annually, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Out of about one million inhabitants living in the dense sprawling zone, less than 50% will be qualified for new homes in the redevelopment, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to barren areas and saline fields on the far outskirts of the city, risking break up a long-established neighborhood. A portion will receive no homes at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the area will be allocated units in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Industries from tailoring to clay work and waste processing are likely to reduce in scale and be relocated to a specific "industrial sector" far from homes.

Existential Threat

In the case of Shaikh, a workshop owner and third generation resident to live in Dharavi, the plan presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor facility creates leather coats – tailored coats, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Household members resides in the rooms downstairs and his workers and sewers – migrants from north India – live on-site, allowing him to afford their labour. Outside this community, accommodation prices are often significantly as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the administrative buildings nearby, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan illustrates a very different vision for the future. Slickly dressed residents gather on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, buying western-style baguettes and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on a patio outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This depicts a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that supports the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for residents," explains the artisan. "It represents an enormous property transaction that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

There is also skepticism of the corporate group. Managed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the national leader – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Even as the state government calls it a partnership, the corporation paid a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including communications, direct threats and implications that speaking against the development was comparable with opposing national interests – by figures they claim work for the developer.

Among those accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c