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Over an extended period, intimidating phone calls persisted. At first, allegedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is among those opposing a multimillion-dollar project where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces bulldozed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of the slum is like nowhere else in the globe," says the resident. "But they want to eradicate our way of life and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the settlement. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, modern retail complexes and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"We don't have proper healthcare, roads or water management and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," states a chai seller, fifty-six, who relocated from southern India in 1982. "The only way is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

However, some, like the leather artisan, are opposing the project.

None deny that this community, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this project – lacking community input – could potentially turn premium city property into an elite enclave, forcing out the marginalized, migrant communities who have been there since generations ago.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who established the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately one million inhabitants living in the packed sprawling neighborhood, fewer than half will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the development, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be relocated to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of the metropolis, risking divide a generations-old social network. Certain individuals will receive no housing at all.

Those allowed to remain in Dharavi will be given units in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has maintained Dharavi for so long.

Commercial activities from tailoring to ceramic crafts and waste processing are likely to reduce in scale and be moved to an allocated "industrial sector" separated from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time resident to reside in this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His informal, multi-level operation makes apparel – tailored coats, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives lives in the rooms downstairs and laborers and sewers – workers from other states – live there, enabling him to afford their labour. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often tenfold as high for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

In the official facilities close by, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative shows a contrasting outlook. Slickly dressed people mill about on cycles and electric vehicles, acquiring international baguettes and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. It is a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that maintains the neighborhood.

"This is not progress for residents," explains the artisan. "It represents a huge real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Managed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the government head – the business group has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Although administrative bodies describes it as a collaborative effort, the developer contributed $950m for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the developer is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the project, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been experienced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, clear intimidation and suggestions that speaking against the project was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they allege represent the corporate group.

Among those accused of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c