🔗 Share this article

For months, coercive phone calls persisted. Originally, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, later from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan claims he was called to the police station and told clearly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is part of a group resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of the slum is like nowhere else in the globe," says the resident. "However they want to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Homes are assembled randomly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and residences with two toilets is an aspirational dream achieved.

"There's no proper healthcare, roads or water management and we have no places for kids to enjoy," explains a tea vendor, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in that period. "The only way is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

But others, like the leather artisan, are fighting against the plan.

None deny that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. But they are concerned that this initiative – without community input – could potentially turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, forcing out the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

It was these excluded, migrant workers who established the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is estimated at between $1m and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Out of about a million inhabitants living in the crowded sprawling neighborhood, less than 50% will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to finish. Others will be moved to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the far outskirts of the city, risking divide a historic social network. A portion will receive no housing at all.

Residents permitted to remain in Dharavi will be provided apartments in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the evolved, communal way of living and working that has supported this area for generations.

Commercial activities from clothing production to clay work and material recovery are projected to decrease in quantity and be relocated to a designated "business area" distant from residential areas.

Existential Threat

In the case of this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to call home the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-floor operation creates garments – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – distributed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members resides in the accommodations below and employees and sewers – workers from north India – reside there, allowing him to afford their labour. Outside this community, housing costs are frequently tenfold as high for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices in the vicinity, a visual representation of the transformation initiative shows a contrasting vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, acquiring continental baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This depicts a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that maintains local residents.

"This represents no development for residents," explains the artisan. "It's a massive land development that will render it impossible for us to survive."

There is also concern of the development company. Managed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the national leader – the corporation has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Although the state government describes it as a partnership, the corporation contributed a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings alleging that the initiative was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to actively protest the development, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been experienced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – comprising messages, clear intimidation and insinuations that criticizing the initiative was comparable with opposing national interests – by figures they claim work for the developer.

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