🔗 Share this article

Over an extended period, coercive communications recurred. Originally, supposedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, subsequently from the authorities. Ultimately, a local artisan claims he was ordered to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is one of many resisting a high-value initiative where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces bulldozed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the globe," states Shaikh. "However they want to destroy our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that overshadow the area. Homes are assembled randomly and frequently missing basic amenities, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision come true.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who moved from his home state in that period. "The only way is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

However, some, including Shaikh, are fighting against the redevelopment.

All recognize that the slum, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they fear that this initiative – lacking community input – is one that will turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, forcing out the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

These were these marginalized, migrant workers who developed the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of community resilience and business activity, whose economic value is valued at between $1m and two million dollars annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly 1 million inhabitants living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer zone, less than 50% will be qualified for new homes in the development, which is estimated to take a significant period to accomplish. Additional residents will be moved to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking fragment a generations-old neighborhood. Some will receive no homes at all.

People eligible to continue living in Dharavi will be given apartments in high-rise buildings, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of living and working that has maintained the community for so long.

Commercial activities from garment work to pottery and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational of his family to live in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, multi-level workshop makes garments – formal jackets, luxury coats, decorated jackets – sold in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members dwells in the accommodations downstairs and employees and garment workers – laborers from other states – live in the same building, allowing him to sustain operations. Away from the slum, Mumbai rents are often tenfold costlier for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

In the official facilities in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative depicts an alternative perspective. Well-groomed inhabitants mill about on cycles and e-vehicles, acquiring continental baguettes and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on a patio outside a coffee shop and treat station. It is a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This represents no progress for us," says the artisan. "It represents a huge property transaction that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists concern of the corporate group. Headed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the national leader – the business group has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Although local authorities calls it a collaborative effort, the developer paid a significant amount for its majority share. A case claiming that the initiative was improperly granted to the corporation is under review in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to actively protest the project, local opponents state they have been faced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – comprising phone calls, explicit warnings and insinuations that opposing the project was equivalent to opposing national interests – by people they assert work for the corporate group.

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