🔗 Share this article

Over an extended period, threatening phone calls continued. Initially, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. Ultimately, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to the local precinct and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – will be razed and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is exceptional in the world," says the resident. "However they want to destroy our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of the slum present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the neighborhood. Dwellings are constructed informally and frequently without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the environment is saturated with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

For certain residents, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream realized.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says a tea vendor, in his fifties, who moved from southern India in 1982. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

But others, like Shaikh, are opposing the plan.

None deny that this community, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. Yet they fear that this plan – lacking resident participation – is one that will turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, displacing the marginalized, immigrant populations who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

These were these excluded, displaced people who established the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about a million people living in the packed 220-hectare neighborhood, fewer than half will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. The remainder will be transferred to wastelands and saline fields on the far outskirts of the metropolis, risking divide a generations-old neighborhood. Some will be denied homes at all.

Residents permitted to remain in Dharavi will be given units in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the evolved, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for many years.

Commercial activities from tailoring to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a designated "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time of his family to reside in this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, multi-level facility makes leather coats – tailored coats, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – marketed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the accommodations downstairs and his workers and sewers – laborers from north India – also sleep in the same building, permitting him to sustain operations. Away from the slum, housing costs are frequently tenfold as high for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative illustrates a very different outlook. Well-groomed people mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, purchasing international baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This is not development for our community," says the protester. "It represents a huge real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the national leader – the conglomerate has faced accusations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a collaborative effort, the developer invested a significant amount for its majority share. Legal proceedings stating that the project was unfairly awarded to the business group is being considered in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to vocally oppose the development, local opponents assert they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – including messages, direct threats and implications that criticizing the development was comparable with opposing national interests – by individuals they assert work for the corporate group.

Included in these alleged to have issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c