🔗 Share this article

Across several weeks, threatening communications continued. Originally, supposedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, and then from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is one of many opposing a high-value initiative where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of the slum is exceptional in the planet," explains Shaikh. "Yet they want to eradicate our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of this community stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the settlement. Dwellings are constructed informally and typically lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is saturated with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and apartments with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision come true.

"There's no sufficient health services, roads or sewage systems and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," states A Selvin Nadar, 56, who relocated from southern India in that period. "The single option is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

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

All recognize that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. However they are concerned that this project – without community input – could potentially turn premium city property into a luxury development, forcing out the lower-caste, migrant communities who have lived there since the late 1800s.

This involved these marginalized, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and commercial output, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and $2m a year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about a million residents living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, a minority will be qualified for new homes in the project, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of Mumbai, threatening to break up a generations-old community. Certain individuals will receive no homes at all.

People eligible to continue living in the area will be allocated apartments in multi-story structures, a major break from the organic, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has sustained Dharavi for so long.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and waste processing are likely to shrink in number and be moved to a specific "business area" separated from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For residents like Shaikh, a workshop owner and multi-generational inhabitant to reside in this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey facility produces garments – tailored coats, suede trenches, fashionable garments – distributed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Household members lives in the rooms underneath and his workers and tailors – laborers from different regions – reside in the same building, permitting him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are often significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

At the official facilities nearby, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan shows a contrasting outlook. Well-groomed inhabitants mill about on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing western-style baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a terrace near Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This depicts a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This represents no progress for us," explains Shaikh. "It represents a huge real estate deal that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Run by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the government head – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it denies.

Even as administrative bodies describes it as a partnership, the business group invested $950m for its majority share. A case stating that the initiative was improperly granted to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to publicly resist the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been faced an extended period of coercion and warning – involving messages, clear intimidation and implications that opposing the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by people they claim work for the business conglomerate.

Part of the group suspected of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c