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Over an extended period, intimidating phone calls continued. Originally, reportedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, subsequently from the police themselves. In the end, a local artisan asserts he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is one of many opposing a expensive project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be demolished and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The culture of the slum is unparalleled in the world," explains the protester. "However their intention is to destroy our way of life and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of this community sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the neighborhood. Dwellings are constructed informally and typically without proper sanitation, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, neat parks, contemporary malls and residences with two toilets is an optimistic future achieved.

"There's no proper healthcare, roads or drainage and we have no places for kids to enjoy," explains a chai seller, 56, who moved from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, including this protester, are fighting against the plan.

All recognize that the slum, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. But they are concerned that this project – absent of community input – could potentially turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, forcing out the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the late 1800s.

These were these marginalized, relocated individuals who established the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and economic productivity, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and $2m a year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about 1 million people living in the dense sprawling zone, less than 50% will be able for replacement housing in the development, which is estimated to take seven years to complete. Others will be transferred to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, potentially divide a generations-old community. Certain individuals will receive no residences at all.

People eligible to continue living in the neighborhood will be provided flats in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of living and working that has sustained the community for so long.

Businesses from garment work to clay work and waste processing are projected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" far from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a leather artisan and multi-generational resident to reside in Dharavi, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey workshop creates apparel – sharp blazers, luxury coats, fashionable garments – distributed in high-end shops in south Mumbai and internationally.

Household members dwells in the rooms underneath and his workers and sewers – laborers from different regions – live on-site, allowing him to sustain operations. Outside the slum, accommodation prices are often 10 times more expensive for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

At the official facilities nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative illustrates a very different outlook. Slickly dressed inhabitants move around on cycles and e-vehicles, acquiring continental baguettes and breakfast items and socializing on a terrace outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This depicts a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This isn't development for residents," explains the artisan. "This constitutes a massive real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also skepticism of the development company. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has faced accusations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities describes it as a partnership, the business group contributed nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A lawsuit alleging that the project was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – including phone calls, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the project was comparable with speaking against the country – by people they claim work for the developer.

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