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For months, intimidating communications persisted. At first, reportedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, and then from law enforcement directly. In the end, one resident asserts he was called to the police station and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is one of many resisting a high-value project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of the slum is exceptional in the globe," says the protester. "Yet their intention is to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that dominate the area. Dwellings are assembled randomly and typically lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision come true.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or drainage and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," states a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The only way is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

However, some, such as this protester, are fighting against the redevelopment.

All recognize that this community, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. However they fear that this plan – lacking public consultation – might transform valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, forcing out the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these excluded, relocated individuals who developed the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and commercial output, whose production is worth between a significant amount and a substantial sum per year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly one million inhabitants living in the dense 220-hectare neighborhood, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the development, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to complete. Additional residents will be transferred to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, risking break up a long-established community. A portion will be denied housing at all.

Those allowed to stay in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the evolved, communal way of living and working that has supported the community for generations.

Businesses from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are likely to reduce in scale and be transferred to a designated "business area" far from people's residences.

Existential Threat

In the case of this protester, a leather artisan and multi-generational inhabitant to reside in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-floor operation makes leather coats – formal jackets, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – distributed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

His family resides in the rooms below and laborers and sewers – workers from north India – live in the same building, permitting him to sustain operations. Beyond the slum, accommodation prices are frequently significantly as high for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project shows a contrasting outlook. Slickly dressed inhabitants mill about on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, acquiring international baguettes and pastries and socializing on a patio near Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This represents a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no development for residents," states Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge property transaction that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Managed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities calls it a partnership, the corporation invested $950m for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings claiming that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to vocally oppose the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents state they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – including communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that speaking against the project was comparable with opposing national interests – by figures they claim represent the corporate group.

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