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Across several weeks, threatening communications persisted. Initially, supposedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, subsequently from the police themselves. Ultimately, a local artisan claims he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is among those opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and modernized by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is unparalleled in the globe," explains Shaikh. "Yet the plan aims to dismantle our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the area. Homes are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the air is permeated by the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision come true.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for children to play," says A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

However, some, like Shaikh, are opposing the plan.

None deny that the slum, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they fear that this initiative – without community input – could potentially convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have been there since the late 1800s.

This involved these excluded, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and commercial output, whose production is worth between $1m and a substantial sum annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare area, less than 50% will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to finish. Additional residents will be relocated to wastelands and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the metropolis, threatening to divide a long-established community. Some will be denied housing at all.

People eligible to continue living in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the natural, shared lifestyle of living and working that has maintained Dharavi for many years.

Commercial activities from tailoring to clay work and recycling are projected to decrease in quantity and be relocated to an allocated "business area" separated from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a leather artisan and third generation inhabitant to call home the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, multi-level operation produces leather coats – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

Household members dwells in the rooms below and his workers and garment workers – migrants from north India – reside there, permitting him to sustain operations. Beyond the slum, accommodation prices are typically 10 times as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the government offices in the vicinity, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan depicts a contrasting perspective. Slickly dressed residents mill about on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, buying international baked goods and croissants and having coffee on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This depicts a world away from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This represents no development for our community," says the artisan. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

There is also distrust of the development company. Run by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the national leader – the business group has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Although the state government calls it a collaborative effort, the developer paid $950m for its controlling interest. A lawsuit alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is under review in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents claim they have been experienced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – including messages, clear intimidation and insinuations that speaking against the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they claim are associated with the corporate group.

Part of the group alleged to have making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c