🔗 Share this article

For months, coercive phone calls persisted. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, later from the police themselves. Ultimately, a local artisan states he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is part of a group fighting a expensive initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and modernized by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the world," states Shaikh. "But the plan aims to dismantle our community and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of the slum present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that overshadow the neighborhood. Homes are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is saturated with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

For certain residents, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and apartments with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream realized.

"We lack proper healthcare, paved pathways or sewage systems and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," states A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, such as this protester, are resisting the project.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. But they are concerned that this project – absent of resident participation – could potentially transform premium city property into a playground for the rich, forcing out the marginalized, working-class residents who have lived there since generations ago.

It was these marginalized, migrant workers who established the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and business activity, whose production is estimated at between one million dollars and $2m a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about a million residents living in the packed 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be eligible for new homes in the project, which is expected to take a significant period to complete. Additional residents will be transferred to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking break up a historic social network. A portion will be denied homes at all.

People eligible to remain in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the natural, communal way of living and working that has sustained the community for generations.

Commercial activities from tailoring to clay work and waste processing are expected to decrease in quantity and be moved to a designated "industrial sector" far from homes.

Existential Threat

For those such as this protester, a leather artisan and multi-generational of his family to reside in the slum, the project presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor operation produces garments – sharp blazers, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and overseas.

His family dwells in the spaces underneath and laborers and tailors – workers from north India – live in the same building, allowing him to sustain operations. Away from the slum, Mumbai rents are often 10 times as high for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the administrative buildings nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative shows a very different outlook. Fashionable inhabitants mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, buying western-style baguettes and croissants and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This represents a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for residents," states the protester. "It represents a huge land development that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the development company. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Although local authorities labels it a collaborative effort, the developer invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings claiming that the project was improperly granted to the developer is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to actively protest the project, protesters and community members assert they have been experienced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including messages, direct threats and insinuations that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to opposing national interests – by individuals they allege represent the developer.

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