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Over an extended period, threatening communications recurred. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. Ultimately, one resident claims he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is among those fighting a expensive project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces razed and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of this area is like nowhere else in the planet," explains the protester. "But their intention is to destroy our community and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of this community stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and elite residences that dominate the settlement. Homes are assembled randomly and often missing basic amenities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the environment is permeated by the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, roads or drainage and there are no spaces for children to play," states a chai seller, fifty-six, who moved from his home state in 1982. "The only way is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

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

None deny that this community, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring investment and development. However they worry that this plan – lacking resident participation – could potentially turn premium city property into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

These were these shunned, displaced people who developed the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and commercial output, whose production is worth between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about 1 million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, a minority will be qualified for new homes in the project, which is estimated to take a significant period to complete. Others will be relocated to barren areas and coastal regions on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially fragment a generations-old community. A portion will not get homes at all.

People eligible to continue living in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained the community for so long.

Commercial activities from tailoring to ceramic crafts and recycling are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "commercial zone" separated from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For residents like Shaikh, a workshop owner and third generation of his family to reside in this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, multi-level operation produces leather coats – sharp blazers, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and internationally.

Household members resides in the spaces underneath and employees and garment workers – laborers from north India – reside there, allowing him to sustain operations. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often significantly as high for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

In the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project illustrates a very different vision for the future. Slickly dressed inhabitants move around on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing continental bread and pastries and enlisting beverages on a patio near a restaurant and treat station. It is a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that maintains local residents.

"This isn't improvement for residents," explains the protester. "It represents a huge land development that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the development company. Headed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Even as administrative bodies calls it a joint project, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the business group is being considered in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to actively protest the redevelopment, local opponents claim they have been experienced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and insinuations that opposing the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by people they claim represent the business conglomerate.

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