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Across several weeks, threatening communications recurred. Originally, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the authorities. Ultimately, a local artisan claims he was summoned to the police station and told clearly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is part of a group opposing a high-value initiative where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is unparalleled in the globe," explains Shaikh. "Yet their intention is to dismantle our community and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that dominate the neighborhood. Residences are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the environment is filled with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and residences with two toilets is an optimistic future come true.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who moved from southern India in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

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

All recognize that the slum, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. However they are concerned that this initiative – without community input – might turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, forcing out the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since the late 1800s.

This involved these excluded, relocated individuals who built up the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and business activity, whose production is worth between $1m and two million dollars annually, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately a million people living in the packed sprawling zone, less than 50% will be able for replacement housing in the project, which is projected to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of the metropolis, potentially fragment a long-established neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the neighborhood will be allocated units in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the organic, communal way of living and working that has sustained the community for so long.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to shrink in number and be transferred to a specific "industrial sector" separated from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational inhabitant to call home the slum, the plan presents an existential threat. His makeshift, multi-level facility makes garments – formal jackets, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – distributed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the rooms underneath and laborers and tailors – migrants from other states – reside on-site, enabling him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are typically tenfold more expensive for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings close by, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project depicts a contrasting vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on cycles and e-vehicles, buying western-style bread and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area adjacent to a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This represents a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This isn't progress for our community," states the artisan. "This constitutes a huge land development that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's concern of the business conglomerate. Headed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the national leader – the corporation has faced accusations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

While the state government labels it a partnership, the business group invested a significant amount for its majority share. A lawsuit stating that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the developer is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to actively protest the redevelopment, protesters and community members claim they have been experienced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – involving messages, direct threats and implications that speaking against the initiative was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by figures they assert represent the developer.

Included in these suspected of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c