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For months, intimidating communications persisted. At first, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident states he was summoned to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a expensive redevelopment plan where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be demolished and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the globe," states the protester. "Yet their intention is to destroy our social fabric and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of the slum sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that dominate the area. Dwellings are built haphazardly and typically missing basic amenities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"We lack proper healthcare, roads or drainage and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who moved from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, like the leather artisan, are fighting against the project.

None deny that this community, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. But they fear that this project – without resident participation – is one that will convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

It was these marginalized, relocated individuals who built up the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and commercial output, whose production is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately a million people living in the dense sprawling neighborhood, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the project, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to complete. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking break up a generations-old community. A portion will receive no housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be given apartments in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has sustained the community for many years.

Industries from clothing production to ceramic crafts and waste processing are expected to decrease in quantity and be relocated to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as the leather artisan, a workshop owner and long-time of his family to live in Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor facility makes garments – sharp blazers, luxury coats, decorated jackets – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members resides in the accommodations below and employees and tailors – migrants from north India – live there, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside this community, Mumbai rents are frequently tenfold more expensive for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

In the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project depicts an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed residents mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring western-style baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on a terrace outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This represents a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports Dharavi's community.

"This isn't development for our community," says the protester. "It's a huge real estate deal that will price people out for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the business conglomerate. Managed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the national leader – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Even as administrative bodies describes it as a joint project, the business group invested a significant amount for its controlling interest. A lawsuit claiming that the initiative was questionably assigned to the business group is pending in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents state they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – including communications, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the initiative was equivalent to opposing national interests – by individuals they assert work for the developer.

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