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Across several weeks, intimidating messages recurred. Initially, allegedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Finally, one resident asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is part of a group resisting a multimillion-dollar project where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be demolished and modernized by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is unparalleled in the globe," states Shaikh. "But the plan aims to destroy our community and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The narrow alleys of the slum present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Residences are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We don't have proper healthcare, roads or sewage systems and there are no spaces for children to play," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who migrated from southern India in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, such as the leather artisan, are opposing the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. However they worry that this project – lacking resident participation – might transform valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, forcing out the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the nineteenth century.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is worth between a significant amount and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly 1 million residents living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the development, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to barren areas and saline fields on the far outskirts of the city, potentially break up a historic community. A portion will not get homes at all.

Those allowed to remain in the area will be provided units in tower blocks, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has sustained Dharavi for many years.

Commercial activities from clothing production to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be relocated to a designated "business area" separated from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time inhabitant to call home Dharavi, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His rickety, multi-level workshop makes leather coats – sharp blazers, suede trenches, fashionable garments – distributed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Household members resides in the rooms underneath and laborers and garment workers – workers from north India – also sleep there, permitting him to afford their labour. Away from this community, Mumbai rents are frequently significantly costlier for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the government offices nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project depicts an alternative vision for the future. Fashionable residents gather on cycles and e-vehicles, purchasing continental baguettes and croissants and socializing on a patio near a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that maintains the neighborhood.

"This isn't development for us," explains the protester. "It represents an enormous property transaction that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also skepticism of the corporate group. Managed by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the national leader – the corporation has faced accusations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

While the state government calls it a joint project, the business group contributed a significant amount for its controlling interest. A case stating that the initiative was improperly granted to the business group is pending in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – comprising phone calls, clear intimidation and suggestions that criticizing the development was comparable with speaking against the country – by figures they assert work for the business conglomerate.

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