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For months, threatening communications persisted. Initially, supposedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, later from the police themselves. In the end, one resident claims he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is among those resisting a expensive initiative where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces razed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is exceptional in the planet," explains the protester. "However they want to dismantle our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the neighborhood. Homes are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the air is filled with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and residences with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," explains a tea vendor, in his fifties, who migrated from southern India in 1982. "The single option is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

But others, including Shaikh, are fighting against the project.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing investment and development. However they worry that this initiative – without public consultation – might turn premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since generations ago.

It was these marginalized, migrant workers who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and business activity, whose production is worth between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly one million inhabitants living in the crowded 220-hectare area, a minority will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the development, which is estimated to take a significant period to complete. Additional residents will be moved to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of the metropolis, risking fragment a historic community. Certain individuals will not get homes at all.

Those allowed to continue living in Dharavi will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the natural, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has maintained this area for so long.

Commercial activities from garment work to ceramic crafts and waste processing are projected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "industrial sector" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational inhabitant to call home Dharavi, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey workshop makes apparel – tailored coats, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – sold in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

His family resides in the rooms underneath and laborers and tailors – laborers from different regions – reside there, allowing him to manage costs. Outside the slum, housing costs are frequently tenfold as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the official facilities nearby, a visual representation of the transformation initiative illustrates a very different vision for the future. Well-groomed residents move around on cycles and eco-friendly transport, buying western-style baguettes and pastries and socializing on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that supports Dharavi's community.

"This is not development for our community," explains Shaikh. "It's a massive property transaction that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it denies.

While local authorities calls it a joint project, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A lawsuit alleging that the project was unfairly awarded to the developer is pending in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to publicly resist the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been experienced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving messages, clear intimidation and suggestions that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by people they claim represent the business conglomerate.

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