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Over an extended period, threatening messages recurred. Initially, allegedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, and then from the authorities. In the end, one resident claims he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is among those resisting a multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is exceptional in the planet," explains the resident. "However they want to eradicate our social fabric and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that overshadow the settlement. Homes are built haphazardly and often missing basic amenities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the air is filled with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future come true.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or water management and there are no spaces for children to play," states a chai seller, in his fifties, who moved from his home state in 1982. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, such as the leather artisan, are fighting against the project.

All recognize that the slum, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring investment and development. But they fear that this project – lacking community input – might transform valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, evicting the lower-caste, migrant communities who have been there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these excluded, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and commercial output, whose production is valued at between $1m and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about one million residents living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be qualified for new homes in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take seven years to complete. The remainder will be moved to wastelands and coastal regions on the far outskirts of the city, potentially divide a generations-old social network. A portion will not get housing at all.

People eligible to remain in the area will be allocated apartments in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has supported this area for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to a designated "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as the leather artisan, a leather artisan and long-time of his family to call home Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-storey facility creates apparel – tailored coats, luxury coats, decorated jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and abroad.

Relatives resides in the spaces below and laborers and sewers – laborers from different regions – live on-site, allowing him to afford their labour. Away from the slum, accommodation prices are typically 10 times as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the government offices nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project shows a contrasting perspective. Slickly dressed inhabitants move around on cycles and electric vehicles, acquiring continental bread and pastries and socializing on a terrace near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that supports local residents.

"This isn't progress for residents," explains the artisan. "It represents an enormous land development that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the business conglomerate. Managed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the national leader – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a joint project, the business group invested a significant amount for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings claiming that the project was questionably assigned to the business group is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to vocally oppose the project, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – comprising messages, clear intimidation and implications that speaking against the development was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by figures they claim are associated with the business conglomerate.

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