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For months, intimidating phone calls recurred. Originally, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, later from law enforcement directly. Finally, one resident states he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is among those opposing a multimillion-dollar initiative where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of this area is unparalleled in the planet," states the resident. "Yet their intention is to eradicate our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that overshadow the area. Homes are constructed informally and typically lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is permeated by the overpowering odor of open sewers.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future realized.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or water management and we have no places for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, 56, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

But others, including the leather artisan, are resisting the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. However they are concerned that this plan – lacking resident participation – might convert premium city property into an elite enclave, displacing the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these marginalized, migrant workers who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and business activity, whose economic value is worth between one million dollars and $2m per year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately one million people living in the dense 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be eligible for replacement housing in the development, which is estimated to take seven years to accomplish. The remainder will be relocated to barren areas and salt plains on the far outskirts of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a historic community. A portion will be denied residences at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the neighborhood will be allocated apartments in high-rise buildings, a major break from the natural, collective approach of living and working that has maintained this area for so long.

Commercial activities from clothing production to pottery and recycling are projected to decrease in quantity and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

In the case of Shaikh, a craftsman and long-time of his family to reside in the slum, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor facility makes leather coats – sharp blazers, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in south Mumbai and internationally.

Household members dwells in the accommodations underneath and employees and garment workers – laborers from different regions – live there, permitting him to afford their labour. Beyond this community, housing costs are typically tenfold as high for a single room.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices in the vicinity, a visual representation of the Dharavi project shows an alternative vision for the future. Fashionable residents move around on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, purchasing continental bread and pastries and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This represents a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that maintains the neighborhood.

"This is not progress for residents," explains Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists concern of the development company. Managed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the government head – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Although local authorities describes it as a partnership, the business group contributed a significant amount for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the business group is pending in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members state they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and suggestions that speaking against the project was tantamount to speaking against the country – by people they assert represent the business conglomerate.

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