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Across several weeks, coercive phone calls persisted. At first, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was called to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is one of many fighting a high-value project where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be razed and modernized by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the planet," explains the protester. "Yet the plan aims to dismantle our community and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the area. Residences are built haphazardly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the air is saturated with the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, contemporary malls and apartments with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"There's no sufficient health services, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from his home state in that period. "The single option is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

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

All recognize that the slum, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need economic input and modernization. But they worry that this project – absent of resident participation – is one that will turn premium city property into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have been there since the nineteenth century.

These were these excluded, relocated individuals who built up the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and business activity, whose output is estimated at between one million dollars and two million dollars a year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly one million people living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer zone, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the project, which is expected to take seven years to accomplish. The remainder will be transferred to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking divide a generations-old community. Certain individuals will not get residences at all.

People eligible to remain in the area will be allocated units in multi-story structures, a major break from the natural, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained the community for so long.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" separated from homes.

Existential Threat

In the case of the leather artisan, a leather artisan and third generation of his family to reside in the slum, the project presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-storey workshop makes apparel – formal jackets, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – marketed in premium stores in south Mumbai and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the spaces below and laborers and sewers – migrants from other states – reside on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Beyond this community, housing costs are often tenfold costlier for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the government offices close by, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project shows a very different vision for the future. Fashionable residents gather on bicycles and e-vehicles, purchasing western-style baked goods and pastries and enlisting beverages on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This depicts a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't improvement for us," explains Shaikh. "This constitutes a massive real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists concern of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the national leader – the corporation has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Even as the state government labels it a collaborative effort, the corporation paid nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A case stating that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to vocally oppose the project, protesters and community members claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – including messages, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the development was equivalent to opposing national interests – by people they allege work for the developer.

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