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Over an extended period, intimidating communications persisted. Initially, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is part of a group fighting a expensive project where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – will be bulldozed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is unparalleled in the world," states Shaikh. "Yet their intention is to eradicate our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the area. Homes are constructed informally and frequently missing basic amenities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and apartments with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have proper healthcare, paved pathways or drainage and there are no spaces for children to play," states a chai seller, 56, who moved from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

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

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. But they fear that this project – lacking community input – could potentially turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the marginalized, migrant communities who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose output is valued at between one million dollars and two million dollars per year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Out of about one million people living in the packed 220-hectare area, less than 50% will be able for replacement housing in the development, which is expected to take seven years to finish. Others will be moved to barren areas and coastal regions on the far outskirts of the city, threatening to fragment a historic community. A portion will be denied housing at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the area will be allocated flats in multi-story structures, a major break from the organic, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has sustained the community for so long.

Industries from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are projected to reduce in scale and be relocated to an allocated "commercial zone" far from homes.

Survival Challenge

For those such as this protester, a workshop owner and multi-generational of his family to live in this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, multi-level facility makes leather coats – tailored coats, luxury coats, fashionable garments – distributed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives lives in the rooms downstairs and employees and garment workers – migrants from north India – also sleep there, enabling him to sustain operations. Outside the slum, housing costs are often 10 times costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

In the official facilities in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows an alternative perspective. Slickly dressed inhabitants gather on cycles and electric vehicles, buying western-style bread and pastries and having coffee on a terrace outside Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This represents a world away from the affordable idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not development for us," explains Shaikh. "It's a massive real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also distrust of the development company. Headed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Although local authorities describes it as a joint project, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A case alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the developer is being considered in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been subjected to an extended period of pressure and threats – involving messages, clear intimidation and insinuations that criticizing the initiative was equivalent to speaking against the country – by figures they assert represent the business conglomerate.

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