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For months, intimidating communications recurred. At first, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, later from the police themselves. Ultimately, a local artisan claims he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is among those resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is unparalleled in the globe," says Shaikh. "However the plan aims to destroy our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The narrow alleys of the slum present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the settlement. Dwellings are constructed informally and typically missing basic amenities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the environment is filled with the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and residences with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future come true.

"There's no proper healthcare, roads or water management and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," states a tea vendor, 56, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, including the leather artisan, are opposing the plan.

All recognize that this community, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need investment and development. However they worry that this initiative – absent of community input – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, forcing out the lower-caste, migrant communities who have been there since the nineteenth century.

These were these excluded, displaced people who established the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and two million dollars a year, making it a major informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly one million inhabitants living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, less than 50% will be qualified for replacement housing in the project, which is projected to take seven years to complete. The remainder will be transferred to wastelands and salt plains on the distant periphery of Mumbai, potentially break up a generations-old neighborhood. Certain individuals will be denied housing at all.

People eligible to stay in the area will be allocated flats in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the natural, communal way of living and working that has supported the community for so long.

Commercial activities from tailoring to clay work and recycling are likely to reduce in scale and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" far from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of Shaikh, a leather artisan and multi-generational resident to call home this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, multi-level operation makes apparel – formal jackets, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – marketed in premium stores in south Mumbai and abroad.

His family lives in the accommodations downstairs and employees and sewers – workers from other states – reside on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Away from this community, housing costs are often tenfold more expensive for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the official facilities nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative shows a contrasting outlook. Well-groomed residents gather on cycles and electric vehicles, buying western-style bread and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This represents a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not progress for us," explains Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge land development that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Managed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the business group has been subject to claims of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

While the state government calls it a collaborative effort, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. Legal proceedings claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the developer is being considered in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to vocally oppose the project, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – involving messages, direct threats and suggestions that criticizing the initiative was equivalent to speaking against the country – by people they claim work for the corporate group.

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