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For months, intimidating phone calls persisted. Initially, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, subsequently from law enforcement directly. In the end, a local artisan claims he was ordered to the local precinct and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is one of many resisting a high-value project where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be demolished and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The culture of this area is like nowhere else in the planet," explains Shaikh. "But their intention is to eradicate our community and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of the slum sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the neighborhood. Dwellings are constructed informally and frequently without proper sanitation, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, contemporary malls and apartments with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, roads or drainage and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," says a tea vendor, in his fifties, who moved from his home state in 1982. "The only way is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, like Shaikh, are opposing the project.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, long neglected as informal housing, is desperately requiring investment and development. However they worry that this initiative – lacking public consultation – could potentially transform valuable urban land into an elite enclave, evicting the lower-caste, working-class residents who have resided there since generations ago.

This involved these excluded, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and business activity, whose output is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum per year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about a million residents living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. The remainder will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the far outskirts of Mumbai, potentially break up a long-established neighborhood. Certain individuals will receive no housing at all.

People eligible to stay in Dharavi will be provided flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the evolved, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has maintained Dharavi for generations.

Commercial activities from clothing production to ceramic crafts and material recovery are expected to shrink in number and be moved to an allocated "business area" distant from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as Shaikh, a craftsman and multi-generational inhabitant to reside in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His informal, three-storey facility produces leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Relatives dwells in the spaces downstairs and employees and sewers – laborers from different regions – live there, enabling him to manage costs. Away from this community, accommodation prices are often 10 times costlier for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the official facilities close by, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan shows a very different vision for the future. Fashionable residents gather on cycles and electric vehicles, purchasing continental baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a coffee shop and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This represents no progress for us," says the protester. "It represents an enormous property transaction that will price people out for our community to continue."

There is also concern of the development company. Headed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the government head – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a joint project, the business group contributed $950m for its 80% stake. A case claiming that the project was questionably assigned to the business group is under review in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to actively protest the development, local opponents assert they have been experienced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – comprising communications, direct threats and insinuations that opposing the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by people they allege work for the business conglomerate.

Included in these accused of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c