🔗 Share this article

Across several weeks, threatening communications continued. Initially, reportedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, subsequently from the authorities. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was called to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is part of a group opposing a multimillion-dollar initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of this area is exceptional in the globe," states the protester. "However they want to dismantle our social fabric and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of this community present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the neighborhood. Homes are constructed informally and often missing basic amenities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is saturated with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

To some, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, roads or sewage systems and there are no spaces for children to play," says a chai seller, fifty-six, who moved from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

However, some, such as Shaikh, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that the slum, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they are concerned that this project – without public consultation – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, evicting the marginalized, working-class residents who have been there since generations ago.

It was these excluded, displaced people who developed the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and commercial output, whose output is valued at between $1m and a substantial sum annually, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly a million residents living in the packed sprawling zone, fewer than half will be eligible for replacement housing in the project, which is projected to take seven years to finish. Additional residents will be moved to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, potentially break up a long-established neighborhood. A portion will be denied housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be given apartments in high-rise buildings, a major break from the organic, collective approach of residing and operating that has sustained the community for generations.

Industries from tailoring to clay work and material recovery are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "business area" far from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to live in the slum, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His informal, multi-level workshop produces garments – tailored coats, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – marketed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Relatives dwells in the spaces underneath and his workers and tailors – laborers from north India – live on-site, permitting him to sustain operations. Outside this community, Mumbai rents are typically significantly as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the administrative buildings in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan illustrates a very different outlook. Slickly dressed residents gather on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, acquiring continental baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on a terrace adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that sustains local residents.

"This is not development for our community," explains the artisan. "It represents a huge real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the business conglomerate. Run by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the national leader – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Even as the state government labels it a collaborative effort, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A case stating that the project was improperly granted to the business group is pending in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to vocally oppose the redevelopment, protesters and community members claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and implications that speaking against the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they claim work for the business conglomerate.

Among those suspected of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c