🔗 Share this article

Across several weeks, coercive messages persisted. Originally, supposedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, later from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was summoned to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is part of a group opposing a high-value project where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be demolished and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the world," states the resident. "Yet they want to eradicate our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of this community present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Homes are built haphazardly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the air is permeated by the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and homes with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or water management and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," explains A Selvin Nadar, 56, who relocated from southern India in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

But others, such as the leather artisan, are resisting the redevelopment.

None deny that the slum, long neglected as informal housing, is desperately requiring investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this plan – absent of resident participation – could potentially convert premium city property into a luxury development, evicting the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the late 1800s.

This involved these marginalized, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and commercial output, whose production is valued at between a significant amount and $2m annually, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the packed sprawling area, less than 50% will be eligible for replacement housing in the project, which is expected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be relocated to wastelands and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking break up a historic community. A portion will be denied residences at all.

People eligible to continue living in the area will be given flats in tower blocks, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has maintained the community for so long.

Industries from garment work to clay work and recycling are likely to shrink in number and be moved to a designated "business area" separated from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like the leather artisan, a leather artisan and long-time inhabitant to call home this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-floor workshop produces leather coats – sharp blazers, luxury coats, fashionable garments – sold in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives resides in the rooms underneath and his workers and garment workers – migrants from different regions – reside on-site, permitting him to manage costs. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are frequently 10 times more expensive for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices nearby, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows a very different perspective. Well-groomed people move around on cycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing international baked goods and pastries and socializing on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports local residents.

"This isn't progress for us," says the artisan. "It's a massive real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a supporter of the national leader – the business group has been subject to claims of favoritism and questionable practices, which it denies.

Even as local authorities labels it a joint project, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A case alleging that the project was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to vocally oppose the project, local opponents assert they have been faced a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – including communications, clear intimidation and suggestions that opposing the development was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by figures they allege represent the corporate group.

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