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Across several weeks, intimidating phone calls recurred. Originally, supposedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is among those fighting a expensive project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and transformed by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is exceptional in the globe," says Shaikh. "But they want to destroy our way of life and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the neighborhood. Homes are assembled randomly and often missing basic amenities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is saturated with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and residences with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, roads or sewage systems and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," says a tea vendor, 56, who moved from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, including this protester, are opposing the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is in stark need economic input and modernization. However they are concerned that this initiative – lacking public consultation – is one that will transform premium city property into a playground for the rich, displacing the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since the late 1800s.

This involved these marginalized, displaced people who established 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 per year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about 1 million residents living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the development, which is expected to take seven years to finish. Additional residents will be transferred to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking fragment a historic social network. A portion will receive no homes at all.

People eligible to stay in the neighborhood will be provided apartments in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the evolved, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has supported this area for generations.

Commercial activities from garment work to clay work and waste processing are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a designated "business area" separated from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like this protester, a craftsman and third generation resident to reside in the slum, the plan presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-storey workshop creates leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – distributed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Relatives lives in the rooms downstairs and employees and sewers – workers from north India – also sleep there, allowing him to afford their labour. Outside the slum, Mumbai rents are typically tenfold more expensive for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the official facilities in the vicinity, a visual representation of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed residents move around on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, purchasing continental baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on a terrace outside Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This depicts a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not development for residents," explains Shaikh. "It represents a huge property transaction that will price people out for our community to continue."

There is also skepticism of the development company. Headed by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the national leader – the corporation has been subject to claims of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Even as the state government labels it a joint project, the business group paid a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings alleging that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the developer is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to actively protest the redevelopment, local opponents assert they have been experienced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – comprising phone calls, clear intimidation and implications that opposing the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they assert work for the business conglomerate.

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