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For months, coercive communications persisted. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, and then from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident asserts he was called to the police station and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is part of a group opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be razed and modernized by a large business group.

"The culture of this area is exceptional in the globe," says the resident. "Yet they want to dismantle our community and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that dominate the neighborhood. Residences are assembled randomly and frequently missing basic amenities, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is saturated with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

To some, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future achieved.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or water management and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, such as Shaikh, are fighting against the redevelopment.

All recognize that the slum, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they worry that this initiative – without community input – might turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, displacing the marginalized, working-class residents who have resided there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who established the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose economic value is worth between a significant amount and a substantial sum a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly a million people living in the crowded sprawling neighborhood, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is projected to take a significant period to finish. Others will be relocated to barren areas and saline fields on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking divide a generations-old community. Some will receive no housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be given units in tower blocks, a substantial change from the natural, shared lifestyle of living and working that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Industries from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

In the case of the leather artisan, a workshop owner and third generation resident to call home this community, the plan presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-storey facility makes leather coats – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – marketed in premium stores in south Mumbai and internationally.

Relatives dwells in the rooms underneath and employees and sewers – workers from north India – also sleep there, enabling him to sustain operations. Beyond this community, housing costs are typically significantly costlier for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices close by, a visual representation of the Dharavi project shows an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed people mill about on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, acquiring international bread and croissants and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This depicts a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that supports Dharavi's community.

"This isn't progress for residents," says Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge property transaction that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the business conglomerate. Headed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the government head – the business group has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

While administrative bodies describes it as a partnership, the corporation contributed a significant amount for its majority share. Legal proceedings claiming that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to publicly resist the redevelopment, protesters and community members claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, clear intimidation and implications that speaking against the development was equivalent to opposing national interests – by figures they assert work for the developer.

Among those accused of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c