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Over an extended period, threatening communications persisted. At first, reportedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, and then from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was called to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is part of a group resisting a expensive project where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of the slum is unparalleled in the planet," states Shaikh. "But their intention is to dismantle our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of this community present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the settlement. Homes are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have sufficient health services, paved pathways or water management and there's nowhere for children to play," states a chai seller, fifty-six, who moved from his home state in the early eighties. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, like this protester, are fighting against the project.

All recognize that the slum, long neglected as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. But they worry that this plan – lacking resident participation – might convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, evicting the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

It was these excluded, relocated individuals who established the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and business activity, whose output is worth between a significant amount and a substantial sum per year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately a million residents living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, fewer than half will be able for new homes in the project, which is expected to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, potentially fragment a long-established neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get residences at all.

People eligible to stay in Dharavi will be allocated units in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the evolved, communal way of residing and operating that has supported the community for so long.

Businesses from tailoring to clay work and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be transferred to a designated "industrial sector" separated from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as Shaikh, a leather artisan and multi-generational resident to call home Dharavi, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-floor facility creates apparel – sharp blazers, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

His family lives in the accommodations downstairs and employees and garment workers – laborers from different regions – live on-site, permitting him to afford their labour. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are frequently significantly costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

In the official facilities close by, a visual representation of the transformation initiative shows an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed residents mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, purchasing international baked goods and pastries and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. It is a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This is not development for our community," says Shaikh. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also skepticism of the corporate group. Run by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it denies.

While administrative bodies labels it a collaborative effort, the business group contributed a significant amount for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings stating that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the redevelopment, protesters and community members claim they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – comprising messages, direct threats and suggestions that criticizing the project was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they allege are associated with the developer.

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