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For months, threatening communications continued. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, later from law enforcement directly. In the end, one resident asserts he was summoned to the police station and told clearly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is among those opposing a expensive initiative where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of the slum is unparalleled in the planet," says Shaikh. "However their intention is to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that overshadow the area. Residences are constructed informally and typically lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and residences with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"We don't have sufficient health services, roads or sewage systems and there are no spaces for children to play," says A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who moved from southern India in 1982. "The single option is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, like Shaikh, are fighting against the project.

None deny that this community, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. Yet they worry that this plan – without public consultation – might turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, forcing out the marginalized, working-class residents who have resided there since generations ago.

It was these shunned, relocated individuals who developed the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is worth between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it a major informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about one million residents living in the crowded sprawling zone, a minority will be eligible for new homes in the project, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be moved to wastelands and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, potentially divide a long-established neighborhood. Some will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to stay in the area will be given units in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "industrial sector" separated from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of Shaikh, a workshop owner and multi-generational of his family to call home the slum, the project presents a survival challenge. His rickety, multi-level operation makes leather coats – sharp blazers, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives resides in the rooms downstairs and his workers and garment workers – laborers from other states – reside there, permitting him to sustain operations. Away from this community, accommodation prices are typically 10 times more expensive for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the administrative buildings nearby, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan depicts an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed residents move around on bicycles and e-vehicles, buying continental baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on a terrace adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for our community," says Shaikh. "It's an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists concern of the business conglomerate. Run by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the government head – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities calls it a collaborative effort, the business group paid $950m for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings stating that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to actively protest the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been subjected to an extended period of pressure and threats – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and insinuations that speaking against the development was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by figures they assert represent the business conglomerate.

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