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For months, threatening communications persisted. Originally, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, later from the authorities. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was called to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is among those opposing a expensive project where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be razed and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of the slum is unparalleled in the planet," explains the protester. "Yet they want to eradicate our community and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and elite residences that loom over the area. Residences are built haphazardly and typically without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

To some, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and apartments with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, proper streets or sewage systems and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who relocated from his home state in 1982. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

However, some, including this protester, are fighting against the project.

None deny that the slum, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need economic input and modernization. But they worry that this initiative – without resident participation – could potentially convert premium city property into an elite enclave, displacing the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have been there since generations ago.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who established the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is estimated at between $1m and $2m a year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately one million inhabitants living in the dense sprawling zone, less than 50% will be able for alternative accommodation in the project, which is projected to take seven years to complete. The remainder will be transferred to barren areas and coastal regions on the far outskirts of Mumbai, potentially break up a long-established neighborhood. Certain individuals will receive no homes at all.

Those allowed to remain in Dharavi will be given apartments in tower blocks, a substantial change from the evolved, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has sustained the community for so long.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "industrial sector" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like Shaikh, a leather artisan and multi-generational inhabitant to call home this community, the project presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-storey operation produces apparel – sharp blazers, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Household members lives in the rooms below and his workers and garment workers – laborers from different regions – reside in the same building, allowing him to manage costs. Away from the slum, Mumbai rents are often significantly as high for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

In the government offices close by, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative depicts an alternative perspective. Slickly dressed residents move around on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, purchasing international baguettes and croissants and having coffee on a patio outside a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This represents a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that maintains the neighborhood.

"This isn't development for our community," says the protester. "It represents a huge real estate deal that will price people out for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the development company. Run by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has faced accusations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a partnership, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the initiative was questionably assigned to the developer is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been faced an extended period of coercion and warning – involving messages, explicit warnings and insinuations that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by figures they allege represent the developer.

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