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For months, coercive communications recurred. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, subsequently from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was ordered to the police station and told clearly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is among those resisting a expensive project where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – will be demolished and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of Dharavi is exceptional in the globe," says Shaikh. "Yet their intention is to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of this community present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the area. Homes are assembled randomly and typically without proper sanitation, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is permeated by the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and apartments with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, proper streets or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, including this protester, are resisting the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. However they are concerned that this plan – lacking community input – is one that will convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, forcing out the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have resided there since the late 1800s.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who developed the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose economic value is worth between one million dollars and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the dense sprawling area, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the development, which is projected to take a significant period to finish. Others will be transferred to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the far outskirts of the metropolis, potentially break up a long-established neighborhood. A portion will be denied homes at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be provided units in high-rise buildings, a major break from the natural, collective approach of residing and operating that has sustained this area for many years.

Commercial activities from clothing production to pottery and material recovery are projected to reduce in scale and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" separated from people's residences.

Existential Threat

In the case of this protester, a craftsman and third generation inhabitant to call home this community, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-floor workshop makes garments – formal jackets, suede trenches, decorated jackets – distributed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

His family resides in the accommodations below and laborers and tailors – laborers from different regions – reside there, enabling him to sustain operations. Away from the slum, Mumbai rents are typically 10 times as high for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the official facilities close by, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan shows a very different perspective. Slickly dressed people gather on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, purchasing continental bread and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on a terrace adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. It is a world away from the affordable idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that maintains local residents.

"This isn't improvement for our community," says Shaikh. "This constitutes a massive real estate deal that will price people out for residents to remain."

There is also concern of the development company. Managed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and an associate of the government head – the business group has faced accusations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities calls it a collaborative effort, the corporation contributed $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit alleging that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the business group is under review in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been experienced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – comprising communications, explicit warnings and implications that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to opposing national interests – by figures they assert are associated with the developer.

Included in these suspected of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c