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Over an extended period, coercive communications recurred. Originally, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, and then from the authorities. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was summoned to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is part of a group fighting a expensive project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of this area is unparalleled in the world," says the protester. "Yet they want to destroy our community and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of this community present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and elite residences that overshadow the area. Homes are assembled randomly and frequently missing basic amenities, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and apartments with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or drainage and we have no places for children to play," explains A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who migrated from his home state in that period. "The single option is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, such as Shaikh, are opposing the plan.

All recognize that the slum, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is in stark need economic input and modernization. But they are concerned that this project – lacking public consultation – could potentially turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, forcing out the lower-caste, migrant communities who have been there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these excluded, relocated individuals who established the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and economic productivity, whose economic value is estimated at between one million dollars and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately one million residents living in the packed 220-hectare neighborhood, a minority will be qualified for new homes in the development, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the far outskirts of the city, potentially fragment a long-established community. Certain individuals will receive no residences at all.

People eligible to continue living in Dharavi will be given flats in multi-story structures, a major break from the organic, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has sustained this area for so long.

Commercial activities from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are expected to reduce in scale and be moved to a designated "business area" far from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of Shaikh, a craftsman and third generation resident to call home the slum, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-storey operation makes garments – formal jackets, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Relatives dwells in the accommodations below and his workers and garment workers – workers from different regions – live in the same building, permitting him to afford their labour. Away from Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are often tenfold costlier for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the administrative buildings nearby, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan depicts an alternative vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, buying continental baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This represents a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no development for residents," states the protester. "It's a huge land development that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

There is also distrust of the business conglomerate. Headed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has faced accusations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it denies.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a collaborative effort, the business group invested a significant amount for its 80% stake. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the business group is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to actively protest the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been experienced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – including phone calls, direct threats and insinuations that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to speaking against the country – by figures they assert represent the business conglomerate.

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