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Over an extended period, coercive phone calls recurred. Originally, allegedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, subsequently from the authorities. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is part of a group fighting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the globe," says Shaikh. "Yet the plan aims to eradicate our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the neighborhood. Dwellings are built haphazardly and often without proper sanitation, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision come true.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or water management and we have no places for children to play," states A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who migrated from southern India in that period. "The single option is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, including the leather artisan, are fighting against the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. Yet they are concerned that this project – absent of community input – could potentially turn premium city property into a luxury development, evicting the lower-caste, migrant communities who have lived there since the late 1800s.

This involved these marginalized, relocated individuals who established the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose output is worth between a significant amount and a substantial sum annually, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about a million residents living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the development, which is projected to take seven years to finish. Others will be moved to wastelands and coastal regions on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking divide a generations-old social network. A portion will be denied residences at all.

Residents permitted to remain in Dharavi will be provided flats in multi-story structures, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has supported the community for many years.

Industries from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are likely to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" far from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For those such as the leather artisan, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to live in the slum, the plan presents a survival challenge. His rickety, multi-level operation produces garments – formal jackets, suede trenches, fashionable garments – distributed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

His family resides in the accommodations downstairs and his workers and garment workers – migrants from other states – live on-site, enabling him to sustain operations. Beyond the slum, Mumbai rents are often tenfold more expensive for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the administrative buildings nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project illustrates an alternative outlook. Slickly dressed residents gather on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, purchasing continental baguettes and pastries and socializing on an outdoor area outside a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for us," explains Shaikh. "It's a massive real estate deal that will render it impossible for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Managed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the business group has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

While administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the developer invested a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings claiming that the project was questionably assigned to the business group is being considered in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members state they have been experienced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving communications, clear intimidation and suggestions that criticizing the development was comparable with opposing national interests – by figures they claim represent the developer.

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