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For months, intimidating phone calls persisted. Initially, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, later from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was ordered to the local precinct and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is part of a group fighting a expensive project where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of the slum is like nowhere else in the globe," states Shaikh. "But their intention is to eradicate our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the settlement. Dwellings are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and homes with two toilets is an optimistic future come true.

"We don't have sufficient health services, roads or sewage systems and there are no spaces for children to play," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who moved from southern India in 1982. "The only way is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

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

None deny that the slum, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. But they fear that this initiative – without resident participation – could potentially convert premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the lower-caste, migrant communities who have been there since the nineteenth century.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who built up the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of community resilience and business activity, whose production is valued at between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly a million people living in the dense 220-hectare neighborhood, a minority will be qualified for new homes in the development, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. The remainder will be moved to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the distant periphery of the city, risking break up a long-established social network. A portion will not get homes at all.

People eligible to continue living in the neighborhood will be given flats in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the natural, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has maintained Dharavi for many years.

Industries from tailoring to ceramic crafts and material recovery are expected to reduce in scale and be relocated to a designated "commercial zone" far from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For those such as the leather artisan, a leather artisan and long-time inhabitant to reside in the slum, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-storey operation makes apparel – tailored coats, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

His family lives in the spaces below and his workers and tailors – laborers from north India – live on-site, permitting him to sustain operations. Outside the slum, Mumbai rents are often significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the government offices nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative vision for the future. Fashionable residents move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, acquiring continental baked goods and pastries and enlisting beverages on a terrace adjacent to a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This depicts a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This is not development for residents," states the protester. "It represents a massive land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also distrust of the development company. Managed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the business group has faced accusations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it denies.

While the state government describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group contributed $950m for its majority share. A case alleging that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to actively protest the project, local opponents state they have been subjected to an extended period of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, clear intimidation and suggestions that opposing the initiative was tantamount to speaking against the country – by figures they claim work for the developer.

Among those suspected of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c