🔗 Share this article

Over an extended period, intimidating communications recurred. Originally, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was called to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is part of a group fighting a high-value project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be bulldozed and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of this area is unparalleled in the globe," says Shaikh. "Yet the plan aims to destroy our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the area. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of open sewers.

For certain residents, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and apartments with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We lack sufficient health services, roads or sewage systems and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," states a tea vendor, fifty-six, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, including the leather artisan, are fighting against the plan.

All recognize that Dharavi, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need financial support and improvement. But they are concerned that this project – absent of public consultation – could potentially turn valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, forcing out the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have lived there since generations ago.

This involved these shunned, displaced people who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and commercial output, whose production is estimated at between a significant amount and two million dollars a year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about one million residents living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, fewer than half will be qualified for new homes in the development, which is estimated to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be moved to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking break up a long-established neighborhood. A portion will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the neighborhood will be provided units in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the organic, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has maintained the community for generations.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are likely to reduce in scale and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" distant from homes.

Survival Challenge

For residents like Shaikh, a leather artisan and multi-generational resident to call home the slum, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-storey facility creates apparel – tailored coats, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – distributed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Household members lives in the rooms downstairs and his workers and tailors – migrants from different regions – reside in the same building, enabling him to manage costs. Outside this community, housing costs are frequently 10 times more expensive for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the government offices in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project shows a very different outlook. Fashionable residents move around on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing international bread and croissants and socializing on a terrace near a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This depicts a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that sustains local residents.

"This isn't improvement for our community," states Shaikh. "It represents a huge property transaction that will render it impossible for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Managed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the business group has faced accusations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Even as local authorities calls it a joint project, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings claiming that the project was questionably assigned to the business group is under review in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the redevelopment, local opponents claim they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including phone calls, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the project was tantamount to speaking against the country – by individuals they claim are associated with the corporate group.

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