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Across several weeks, threatening communications persisted. At first, supposedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is part of a group resisting a expensive project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be bulldozed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," states Shaikh. "Yet the plan aims to dismantle our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that overshadow the settlement. Dwellings are assembled randomly and typically without proper sanitation, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream realized.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for children to play," explains a tea vendor, fifty-six, who moved from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

However, some, including the leather artisan, are resisting the plan.

All recognize that the slum, long neglected as informal housing, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. However they fear that this plan – absent of resident participation – might turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, evicting the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have lived there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, migrant workers who built up the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and business activity, whose output is worth between a significant amount and two million dollars annually, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly a million people living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the project, which is estimated to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to wastelands and saline fields on the distant periphery of the metropolis, threatening to fragment a long-established social network. Some will not get housing at all.

People eligible to remain in the area will be given units in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the organic, collective approach of living and working that has sustained Dharavi for generations.

Businesses from clothing production to ceramic crafts and waste processing are likely to reduce in scale and be relocated to a specific "industrial sector" distant from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For those such as Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time inhabitant to call home Dharavi, the plan presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor facility makes apparel – formal jackets, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Household members lives in the rooms downstairs and employees and tailors – migrants from different regions – also sleep on-site, enabling him to manage costs. Away from the slum, accommodation prices are typically 10 times more expensive for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the official facilities close by, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan shows a contrasting outlook. Well-groomed people gather on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, buying western-style baguettes and croissants and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that sustains local residents.

"This represents no progress for residents," states Shaikh. "It's a huge land development that will price people out for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the business conglomerate. Run by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Even as the state government describes it as a collaborative effort, the developer contributed a significant amount for its majority share. A case claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the developer is under review in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to vocally oppose the development, local opponents claim they have been faced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – including messages, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the project was equivalent to speaking against the country – by figures they allege represent the corporate group.

Part of the group accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c