🔗 Share this article

Over an extended period, threatening phone calls recurred. At first, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to the local precinct and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is among those fighting a high-value initiative where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be bulldozed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is unparalleled in the globe," explains Shaikh. "But their intention is to destroy our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the neighborhood. Residences are built haphazardly and typically without proper sanitation, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the air is filled with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and residences with two toilets is an aspirational dream realized.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," states a chai seller, in his fifties, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The only way is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

But others, such as this protester, are opposing the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this plan – lacking public consultation – is one that will convert premium city property into a luxury development, displacing the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

These were these shunned, relocated individuals who developed the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and business activity, whose output is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars per year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly one million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer zone, fewer than half will be qualified for replacement housing in the development, which is projected to take a significant period to complete. Others will be relocated to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the far outskirts of the city, potentially fragment a generations-old community. A portion will not get housing at all.

Those allowed to remain in Dharavi will be provided flats in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of living and working that has maintained Dharavi for so long.

Commercial activities from garment work to pottery and recycling are projected to reduce in scale and be moved to a designated "commercial zone" separated from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like Shaikh, a craftsman and long-time of his family to call home Dharavi, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey facility makes garments – tailored coats, luxury coats, fashionable garments – distributed in premium stores in south Mumbai and abroad.

Household members dwells in the rooms below and laborers and sewers – migrants from different regions – reside in the same building, allowing him to sustain operations. Outside Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are typically significantly more expensive for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

In the administrative buildings in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative depicts a very different perspective. Slickly dressed people move around on bicycles and e-vehicles, buying international baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a patio near a restaurant and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that supports local residents.

"This is not development for us," explains the artisan. "It represents a huge property transaction that will price people out for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's concern of the corporate group. Run by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has faced accusations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Although administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the business group contributed $950m for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings alleging that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the business group is being considered in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to publicly resist the redevelopment, protesters and community members claim they have been experienced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving messages, clear intimidation and insinuations that criticizing the development was comparable with opposing national interests – by individuals they allege work for the business conglomerate.

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