🔗 Share this article

For months, coercive phone calls recurred. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, later from the police themselves. Ultimately, one resident states he was called to the local precinct and warned explicitly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is among those opposing a multimillion-dollar initiative where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be demolished and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is exceptional in the planet," explains the resident. "However they want to dismantle our community and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the neighborhood. Homes are constructed informally and often missing basic amenities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and apartments with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or drainage and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," states a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from his home state in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, like this protester, are opposing the redevelopment.

None deny that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. But they fear that this plan – lacking resident participation – might convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, forcing out the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, relocated individuals who established the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and commercial output, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and two million dollars per year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately 1 million residents living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer zone, a minority will be able for alternative accommodation in the development, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to finish. Others will be relocated to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the remote edges of the city, threatening to break up a generations-old neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get homes at all.

Those allowed to remain in the area will be allocated apartments in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the natural, communal way of living and working that has sustained the community for generations.

Industries from garment work to pottery and waste processing are likely to decrease in quantity and be relocated to a specific "industrial sector" distant from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For those such as the leather artisan, a workshop owner and multi-generational resident to call home the slum, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey facility makes apparel – tailored coats, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

His family dwells in the accommodations downstairs and his workers and tailors – laborers from different regions – live there, allowing him to sustain operations. Outside this community, Mumbai rents are often significantly as high for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the official facilities nearby, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan shows a contrasting outlook. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, purchasing international baked goods and pastries and socializing on a terrace near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This represents a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not improvement for us," explains the artisan. "It's a massive land development that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Managed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the business group has faced accusations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Even as the state government labels it a joint project, the business group contributed a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings stating that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the developer is pending in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the development, local opponents state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the project was equivalent to speaking against the country – by figures they assert are associated with the business conglomerate.

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