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Over an extended period, intimidating communications persisted. Initially, supposedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was ordered to the police station and told clearly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is among those resisting a high-value project where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be bulldozed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the globe," states the resident. "However their intention is to eradicate our way of life and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the neighborhood. Dwellings are constructed informally and typically missing basic amenities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of premium apartments, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with two toilets is a hopeful vision achieved.

"There's no sufficient health services, proper streets or drainage and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," states A Selvin Nadar, 56, who migrated from southern India in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

But others, such as this protester, are resisting the plan.

All recognize that this community, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. Yet they fear that this initiative – lacking resident participation – might transform premium city property into a playground for the rich, evicting the lower-caste, migrant communities who have been there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these excluded, relocated individuals who developed the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and business activity, whose output is valued at between one million dollars and a substantial sum per year, making it a major informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about a million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare zone, less than 50% will be able for alternative accommodation in the project, which is estimated to take a significant period to finish. The remainder will be moved to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, risking break up a generations-old community. Certain individuals will receive no homes at all.

People eligible to stay in Dharavi will be given flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of living and working that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Industries from clothing production to clay work and recycling are expected to decrease in quantity and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" far from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time inhabitant to call home this community, the project presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor operation produces leather coats – formal jackets, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family dwells in the rooms downstairs and laborers and garment workers – migrants from north India – also sleep there, allowing him to sustain operations. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are frequently significantly costlier for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the official facilities close by, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative shows a very different vision for the future. Fashionable inhabitants move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, buying continental baked goods and pastries and enlisting beverages on a terrace adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't development for our community," says Shaikh. "It's a huge real estate deal that will price people out 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 Indian prime minister – the corporation has faced accusations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

While local authorities describes it as a joint project, the business group paid nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings stating that the project was questionably assigned to the developer is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members claim they have been faced an extended period of pressure and threats – involving communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that opposing the project was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by people they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

Among those accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c