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For months, intimidating messages persisted. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, and then from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was summoned to the police station and told clearly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a expensive project where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is unparalleled in the globe," explains the resident. "Yet the plan aims to dismantle our community and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of this community sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that loom over the neighborhood. Homes are built haphazardly and often missing basic amenities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have proper healthcare, proper streets or drainage and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," states a tea vendor, in his fifties, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, such as the leather artisan, are opposing the project.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. However they are concerned that this plan – without resident participation – might transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, working-class residents who have lived there since the late 1800s.

This involved these marginalized, relocated individuals who established the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between one million dollars and $2m annually, making it a major informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly one million residents living in the packed 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be able for new homes in the project, which is projected to take seven years to finish. Additional residents will be transferred to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the far outskirts of the metropolis, threatening to divide a long-established community. Certain individuals will receive no housing at all.

Residents permitted to stay in Dharavi will be allocated flats in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the organic, communal way of living and working that has maintained the community for many years.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and waste processing are likely to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" far from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like the leather artisan, a craftsman and multi-generational inhabitant to live in Dharavi, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-storey workshop makes leather coats – sharp blazers, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and abroad.

Household members lives in the rooms downstairs and employees and tailors – migrants from other states – reside on-site, enabling him to manage costs. Away from the slum, Mumbai rents are typically significantly costlier for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the administrative buildings nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project illustrates an alternative outlook. Well-groomed residents mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring western-style baked goods and pastries and socializing on a patio near Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This depicts a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that sustains local residents.

"This is not development for our community," says the protester. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

There is also skepticism of the corporate group. Run by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Even as the state government labels it a collaborative effort, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the corporation is under review in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to actively protest the redevelopment, protesters and community members assert they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – including phone calls, direct threats and insinuations that opposing the initiative was equivalent to opposing national interests – by figures they allege represent the developer.

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