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Across several weeks, coercive messages continued. Originally, allegedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, later from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident states he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a expensive initiative where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – will be bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of the slum is unparalleled in the planet," states the resident. "But they want to eradicate our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of this community present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that overshadow the settlement. Dwellings are built haphazardly and often lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is permeated by the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

To some, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of high-end towers, neat parks, contemporary malls and residences with proper sanitation is an optimistic future realized.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or drainage and we have no places for youth to recreate," says a chai seller, 56, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The only way is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

But others, such as Shaikh, are fighting against the plan.

All recognize that the slum, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. Yet they worry that this plan – lacking public consultation – might turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since the late 1800s.

These were these excluded, relocated individuals who developed the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose economic value is worth between $1m and two million dollars per year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately one million inhabitants living in the crowded 220-hectare area, a minority will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is projected to take a significant period to finish. Others will be relocated to barren areas and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, threatening to divide a historic neighborhood. A portion will receive no homes at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be given flats in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the natural, collective approach of living and working that has supported Dharavi for generations.

Businesses from tailoring to ceramic crafts and waste processing are likely to shrink in number and be moved to an allocated "industrial sector" separated from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as this protester, a leather artisan and multi-generational of his family to reside in this community, the project presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey facility creates leather coats – formal jackets, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Household members resides in the rooms underneath and his workers and tailors – laborers from north India – reside on-site, permitting him to manage costs. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are often tenfold as high for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the official facilities in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan depicts a very different vision for the future. Well-groomed residents move around on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, buying continental bread and breakfast items and socializing on a terrace adjacent to a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This depicts a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains local residents.

"This isn't progress for our community," explains the artisan. "This constitutes a huge property transaction that will price people out for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the development company. Headed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the national leader – the corporation has been subject to claims of favoritism and questionable practices, which it denies.

While administrative bodies calls it a joint project, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the business group is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the redevelopment, protesters and community members state they have been subjected to an extended period of pressure and threats – comprising communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that criticizing the project was equivalent to opposing national interests – by figures they assert represent the corporate group.

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