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For months, threatening communications recurred. Initially, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. In the end, a local artisan states he was ordered to the police station and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is one of many resisting a multimillion-dollar initiative where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the world," explains the resident. "Yet they want to destroy our social fabric and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The narrow alleys of the slum present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the settlement. Dwellings are built haphazardly and often lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

To some, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision realized.

"There's no sufficient health services, paved pathways or water management and there are no spaces for children to play," states a tea vendor, fifty-six, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

However, some, including Shaikh, are opposing the project.

All recognize that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. However they fear that this initiative – absent of resident participation – is one that will transform premium city property into an elite enclave, forcing out the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

It was these excluded, displaced people who established the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and commercial output, whose production is valued at between a significant amount and a substantial sum a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately a million people living in the crowded 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be eligible for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to finish. The remainder will be transferred to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, potentially break up a generations-old social network. Some will not get homes at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the area will be allocated apartments in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the organic, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has maintained this area for so long.

Businesses from tailoring to clay work and waste processing are likely to shrink in number and be relocated to an allocated "industrial sector" far from homes.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a workshop owner and long-time resident to reside in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey operation creates apparel – tailored coats, luxury coats, fashionable garments – sold in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

His family resides in the accommodations below and laborers and sewers – laborers from north India – also sleep there, permitting him to afford their labour. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are typically significantly as high for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the administrative buildings close by, a visual representation of the Dharavi project shows a contrasting vision for the future. Fashionable people mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, buying international bread and croissants and socializing on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. It is a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This is not improvement for residents," says the artisan. "This constitutes a massive land development that will price people out for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists concern of the business conglomerate. Run by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the national leader – the business group has encountered allegations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Even as administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the project was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the development, local opponents assert they have been faced a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – involving messages, clear intimidation and insinuations that speaking against the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they assert represent the corporate group.

Included in these alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c