🔗 Share this article

Over an extended period, coercive messages continued. At first, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident claims he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is among those fighting a expensive redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be razed and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The culture of this area is like nowhere else in the globe," states Shaikh. "However they want to dismantle our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the area. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and apartments with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream realized.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or water management and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," states a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The single option is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

But others, such as Shaikh, are fighting against the project.

All recognize that this community, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring investment and development. Yet they fear that this plan – lacking resident participation – might turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, forcing out the lower-caste, working-class residents who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

These were these marginalized, migrant workers who built up the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and commercial output, whose output is worth between $1m and $2m a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately a million people living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, fewer than half will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the project, which is estimated to take a significant period to complete. The remainder will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the distant periphery of the metropolis, risking divide a historic community. Some will not get homes at all.

People eligible to continue living in the area will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the natural, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has maintained the community for generations.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are likely to reduce in scale and be transferred to a specific "business area" distant from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of Shaikh, a leather artisan and long-time resident to reside in this community, the project presents an existential threat. His makeshift, multi-level workshop produces leather coats – formal jackets, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – sold in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Household members dwells in the accommodations downstairs and employees and tailors – workers from different regions – also sleep in the same building, enabling him to sustain operations. Beyond the slum, housing costs are often 10 times more expensive for a single room.

Threats and Warning

Within the official facilities close by, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan illustrates a very different perspective. Well-groomed residents gather on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring continental baguettes and pastries and enlisting beverages on a patio outside a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This represents a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no improvement for our community," says Shaikh. "It represents an enormous land development that will price people out for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's concern of the corporate group. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the national leader – the corporation has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it denies.

Although local authorities describes it as a collaborative effort, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A case claiming that the project was unfairly awarded to the corporation is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to publicly resist the development, local opponents state they have been experienced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – involving messages, explicit warnings and suggestions that criticizing the initiative was comparable with opposing national interests – by figures they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

Among those accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c