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For months, coercive phone calls persisted. Initially, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, and then from the authorities. Ultimately, a local artisan claims he was summoned to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is one of many fighting a high-value initiative where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is exceptional in the world," states the resident. "But they want to dismantle our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the settlement. Residences are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of open sewers.

To some, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and residences with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," says A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who moved from his home state in 1982. "The only way is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

But others, like Shaikh, are opposing the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. However they worry that this plan – absent of resident participation – is one that will convert premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the lower-caste, migrant communities who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these marginalized, migrant workers who established the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and business activity, whose economic value is worth between $1m and two million dollars annually, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately a million residents living in the crowded 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to complete. Others will be moved to wastelands and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, potentially divide a generations-old community. Certain individuals will be denied housing at all.

People eligible to stay in the area will be allocated flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the organic, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for so long.

Businesses from clothing production to pottery and material recovery are projected to reduce in scale and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" far from homes.

Existential Threat

In the case of this protester, a craftsman and long-time inhabitant to reside in the slum, the project presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-floor facility creates apparel – tailored coats, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Household members resides in the rooms underneath and employees and sewers – migrants from north India – live there, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside the slum, accommodation prices are typically significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a visual representation of the transformation initiative depicts a very different outlook. Well-groomed people move around on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing international baked goods and pastries and enlisting beverages on a patio adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and treat station. It is a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains local residents.

"This is not development for our community," explains the protester. "This constitutes an enormous real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Although the state government calls it a partnership, the corporation invested a significant amount for its majority share. A case claiming that the initiative was questionably assigned to the corporation is under review in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to actively protest the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents state they have been experienced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising messages, explicit warnings and insinuations that opposing the development was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by people they allege work for the corporate group.

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