Across several weeks, coercive messages recurred. At first, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. Finally, one resident asserts he was called to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.
This third-generation resident is among those resisting a high-value project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and modernized by a corporate giant.
"The unique ecosystem of the slum is unparalleled in the globe," explains the resident. "Yet their intention is to eradicate our way of life and stop us speaking out."
Dual Worlds
The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that overshadow the neighborhood. Dwellings are built haphazardly and often missing basic amenities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is permeated by the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.
To some, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision realized.
"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or drainage and we have no places for kids to enjoy," states a tea vendor, fifty-six, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The only way is to tear it all down and build us new homes."
Community Resistance
Yet certain residents, such as this protester, are opposing the redevelopment.
All recognize that this community, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they are concerned that this plan – lacking community input – might transform premium city property into a luxury development, forcing out the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have resided there since generations ago.
This involved these shunned, displaced people who established the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of community resilience and commercial output, whose production is worth between one million dollars and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.
Relocation Worries
Of the roughly 1 million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the redevelopment, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to finish. Others will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the remote edges of the metropolis, threatening to break up a historic community. Some will receive no residences at all.
Residents permitted to continue living in Dharavi will be provided apartments in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the natural, communal way of residing and operating that has supported the community for so long.
Businesses from clothing production to pottery and recycling are likely to reduce in scale and be relocated to a specific "commercial zone" distant from homes.
Survival Challenge
In the case of this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to reside in the slum, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His rickety, three-floor facility produces apparel – tailored coats, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – marketed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.
His family lives in the accommodations underneath and his workers and garment workers – laborers from different regions – also sleep in the same building, enabling him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are frequently significantly costlier for minimal space.
Pressure and Coercion
Within the government offices in the vicinity, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan shows a contrasting perspective. Fashionable inhabitants mill about on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, acquiring international baked goods and croissants and socializing on a terrace adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This depicts a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains Dharavi's community.
"This isn't progress for our community," states the protester. "This constitutes a massive property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."
Furthermore, there's distrust of the business conglomerate. Managed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the business group has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it rejects.
Even as local authorities labels it a joint project, the developer contributed nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings claiming that the project was improperly granted to the developer is pending in India's supreme court.
Ongoing Pressure
From when they initiated to actively protest the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, direct threats and implications that speaking against the development was tantamount to opposing national interests – by people they allege work for the business conglomerate.
Among those suspected of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c
