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Across several weeks, threatening phone calls recurred. At first, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, later from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, a local artisan states he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is among those fighting a multimillion-dollar project where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces bulldozed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the planet," states Shaikh. "However they want to destroy our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the settlement. Dwellings are built haphazardly and typically missing basic amenities, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the environment is filled with the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of premium apartments, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and residences with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream realized.

"We don't have proper healthcare, roads or water management and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," says a chai seller, 56, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, including the leather artisan, are resisting the project.

None deny that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. Yet they worry that this project – lacking community input – could potentially convert valuable urban land into an elite enclave, forcing out the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have been there since the nineteenth century.

These were these marginalized, migrant workers who built up the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and business activity, whose production is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it a major informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Out of about a million people living in the packed 220-hectare area, a minority will be able for replacement housing in the project, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. Others will be relocated to barren areas and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, potentially break up a historic social network. Certain individuals will receive no homes at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the area will be provided flats in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the organic, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has sustained this area for so long.

Commercial activities from tailoring to ceramic crafts and waste processing are likely to shrink in number and be relocated to an allocated "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a craftsman and third generation resident to call home Dharavi, the plan presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-storey operation creates apparel – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and internationally.

Relatives dwells in the accommodations downstairs and employees and tailors – laborers from north India – reside in the same building, permitting him to sustain operations. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often tenfold more expensive for a single room.

Threats and Warning

In the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows a contrasting vision for the future. Well-groomed people mill about on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, purchasing international baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on a patio adjacent to a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports local residents.

"This is not improvement for our community," states the protester. "It's an enormous real estate deal that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the development company. Managed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the national leader – the corporation has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Although the state government calls it a collaborative effort, the corporation invested a significant amount for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the business group is being considered in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the development, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – involving communications, explicit warnings and suggestions that opposing the development was comparable with speaking against the country – by individuals they allege work for the corporate group.

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