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Across several weeks, intimidating messages persisted. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, later from the police themselves. Finally, one resident asserts he was ordered to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is among those opposing a high-value project where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be bulldozed and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the planet," says Shaikh. "But they want to dismantle our community and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that dominate the neighborhood. Homes are constructed informally and typically lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the air is saturated with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

For certain residents, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future achieved.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for children to play," says a chai seller, fifty-six, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, like the leather artisan, are opposing the plan.

All recognize that Dharavi, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need investment and development. However they fear that this plan – lacking resident participation – is one that will convert premium city property into a luxury development, evicting the marginalized, working-class residents who have lived there since generations ago.

These were these shunned, relocated individuals who built up the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of community resilience and commercial output, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and two million dollars per year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare zone, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the development, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. The remainder will be relocated to wastelands and salt plains on the distant periphery of the metropolis, threatening to break up a historic social network. A portion will receive no housing at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the neighborhood will be given apartments in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the natural, collective approach of living and working that has supported this area for many years.

Industries from tailoring to clay work and material recovery are projected to reduce in scale and be relocated to an allocated "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

In the case of the leather artisan, a craftsman and multi-generational of his family to live in the slum, the plan presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor facility creates leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and internationally.

Household members dwells in the spaces underneath and his workers and garment workers – workers from north India – reside there, allowing him to sustain operations. Beyond this community, accommodation prices are often 10 times more expensive for a single room.

Threats and Warning

At the official facilities in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative perspective. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, acquiring western-style baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on a patio near Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports local residents.

"This represents no improvement for our community," says the protester. "It's an enormous land development that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists concern of the business conglomerate. Headed by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the national leader – the corporation has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

While the state government calls it a collaborative effort, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A case claiming that the initiative was questionably assigned to the business group is under review in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to publicly resist the redevelopment, local opponents assert they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – comprising messages, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the development was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by people they claim work for the corporate group.

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