🔗 Share this article

Over an extended period, coercive messages persisted. Initially, reportedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. Finally, one resident asserts he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is one of many opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces demolished and transformed by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of this area is like nowhere else in the planet," says Shaikh. "However they want to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the area. Homes are built haphazardly and typically missing basic amenities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the air is saturated with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

For certain residents, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or drainage and we have no places for children to play," states a chai seller, fifty-six, who relocated from his home state in that period. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, such as Shaikh, are opposing the plan.

All recognize that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this initiative – without community input – could potentially convert premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have lived there since the late 1800s.

It was these shunned, relocated individuals who established the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose output is valued at between $1m and two million dollars per year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately one million people living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be able for replacement housing in the project, which is expected to take a significant period to accomplish. The remainder will be relocated to barren areas and coastal regions on the far outskirts of Mumbai, risking divide a generations-old community. Certain individuals will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to stay in the neighborhood will be allocated units in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the organic, communal way of living and working that has sustained the community for many years.

Industries from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are likely to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "commercial zone" distant from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of the leather artisan, a craftsman and long-time of his family to reside in the slum, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His rickety, three-floor workshop creates leather coats – sharp blazers, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Household members resides in the accommodations downstairs and laborers and garment workers – workers from other states – also sleep in the same building, permitting him to afford their labour. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are typically significantly as high for a single room.

Threats and Warning

At the administrative buildings close by, a visual representation of the transformation initiative depicts a very different outlook. Well-groomed residents mill about on bicycles and e-vehicles, buying international baguettes and breakfast items and socializing on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains local residents.

"This represents no progress for residents," says the artisan. "It represents a massive land development that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the business conglomerate. Headed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a supporter of the national leader – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Even as local authorities describes it as a partnership, the developer paid a significant amount for its majority share. A case alleging that the initiative was questionably assigned to the developer is under review in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the redevelopment, protesters and community members state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – comprising communications, direct threats and suggestions that speaking against the development was equivalent to opposing national interests – by figures they claim are associated with the corporate group.

Part of the group suspected of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c