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For months, intimidating messages persisted. Initially, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Finally, one resident asserts he was summoned to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is one of many opposing a multimillion-dollar initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – will be bulldozed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is exceptional in the globe," says Shaikh. "But they want to dismantle our community and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of this community stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that overshadow the neighborhood. Dwellings are constructed informally and typically missing basic amenities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the environment is saturated with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and residences with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision come true.

"There's no proper healthcare, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," explains a chai seller, 56, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The single option is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, such as the leather artisan, are resisting the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. However they are concerned that this plan – without community input – is one that will transform premium city property into an elite enclave, forcing out the marginalized, migrant communities who have lived there since the late 1800s.

These were these shunned, relocated individuals who developed the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and commercial output, whose production is estimated at between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately 1 million people living in the crowded 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is expected to take a significant period to complete. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of the metropolis, risking break up a long-established social network. Some will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for many years.

Industries from tailoring to clay work and material recovery are projected to reduce in scale and be moved to a specific "commercial zone" distant from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of this protester, a workshop owner and multi-generational inhabitant to live in the slum, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, multi-level operation creates leather coats – formal jackets, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members dwells in the accommodations below and his workers and tailors – workers from different regions – reside in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Beyond the slum, Mumbai rents are frequently 10 times more expensive for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the government offices close by, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project depicts a very different outlook. Fashionable people mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, purchasing continental baguettes and pastries and having coffee on a patio near a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains the neighborhood.

"This is not improvement for our community," states the protester. "This constitutes a huge property transaction that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the business conglomerate. Run by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the national leader – the business group has faced accusations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

While local authorities calls it a partnership, the corporation paid nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the business group is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members claim they have been experienced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – comprising communications, explicit warnings and implications that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to speaking against the country – by individuals they claim work for the business conglomerate.

Among those alleged to have making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c