Intimidation, Apprehension and Hope as Mumbai Residents Face the Bulldozers

Across several weeks, threatening communications persisted. Originally, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, later from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was ordered to the police station and told clearly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is among those opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be razed and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The culture of Dharavi is unparalleled in the world," explains the resident. "Yet their intention is to destroy our community and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Residences are constructed informally and often without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

For certain residents, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of high-end towers, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"There's no sufficient health services, paved pathways or drainage and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," states A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who moved from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

But others, including the leather artisan, are fighting against the plan.

None deny that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. But they fear that this project – without public consultation – could potentially turn premium city property into an elite enclave, forcing out the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

This involved these excluded, displaced people who established the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between $1m and a substantial sum annually, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Out of about one million residents living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, a minority will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is projected to take a significant period to complete. Others will be relocated to barren areas and salt plains on the far outskirts of the city, risking fragment a long-established social network. Some will not get housing at all.

Those allowed to continue living in Dharavi will be given units in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for many years.

Businesses from tailoring to pottery and recycling are expected to reduce in scale and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" separated from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like this protester, a workshop owner and third generation resident to reside in the slum, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His informal, multi-level operation makes garments – tailored coats, suede trenches, fashionable garments – distributed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

His family lives in the accommodations downstairs and employees and garment workers – workers from different regions – live there, enabling him to manage costs. Away from the slum, housing costs are frequently tenfold more expensive for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project depicts a contrasting vision for the future. Slickly dressed people gather on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, buying international baguettes and pastries and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This depicts a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that maintains local residents.

"This is not progress for residents," states Shaikh. "This constitutes an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

There is also distrust of the corporate group. Run by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the government head – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

While local authorities describes it as a partnership, the developer contributed nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A case claiming that the initiative was improperly granted to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to actively protest the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been faced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – involving messages, direct threats and suggestions that criticizing the development was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by individuals they assert represent the business conglomerate.

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