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Over an extended period, threatening communications continued. Originally, reportedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the police themselves. In the end, a local artisan claims he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is among those opposing a high-value project where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – will be bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of this area is exceptional in the globe," explains the protester. "Yet they want to eradicate our community and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of the slum sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that loom over the neighborhood. Residences are assembled randomly and typically without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the environment is filled with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

For certain residents, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and residences with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream realized.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, 56, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The single option is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, including the leather artisan, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that the slum, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. But they are concerned that this initiative – lacking resident participation – is one that will turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since generations ago.

This involved these shunned, migrant workers who developed the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and commercial output, whose output is estimated at between $1m and a substantial sum per year, making it a major informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly a million residents living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be qualified for new homes in the project, which is expected to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be transferred to barren areas and salt plains on the distant periphery of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a generations-old social network. A portion will be denied homes at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be provided units in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the evolved, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has maintained Dharavi for generations.

Commercial activities from tailoring to pottery and material recovery are expected to reduce in scale and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" distant from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like the leather artisan, a craftsman and third generation inhabitant to call home this community, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor workshop produces apparel – formal jackets, luxury coats, fashionable garments – distributed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

Household members lives in the rooms below and employees and sewers – migrants from north India – live there, allowing him to sustain operations. Outside this community, housing costs are often significantly costlier for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the official facilities in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on cycles and electric vehicles, acquiring continental baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a patio outside a restaurant and Ice-Cream. It is a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports the neighborhood.

"This is not improvement for our community," explains the protester. "It's an enormous land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has been subject to claims of favoritism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

While administrative bodies calls it a partnership, the developer invested nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings stating that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to publicly resist the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – comprising phone calls, explicit warnings and insinuations that criticizing the development was comparable with opposing national interests – by individuals they claim represent the developer.

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