Pressure, Fear and Optimism as India's financial capital Slum Dwellers Face the Bulldozers

For months, intimidating communications persisted. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, and then from the authorities. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is part of a group opposing a multimillion-dollar initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of this area is unparalleled in the planet," says the resident. "Yet the plan aims to dismantle our community and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the area. Homes are assembled randomly and typically without proper sanitation, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the air is filled with the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and residences with two toilets is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We don't have proper healthcare, proper streets or sewage systems and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, in his fifties, who moved from his home state in 1982. "The single option is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

However, some, like this protester, are fighting against the project.

All recognize that this community, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this plan – without resident participation – might turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, forcing out the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have lived there since the late 1800s.

These were these excluded, migrant workers who established the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and business activity, whose economic value is estimated at between one million dollars and $2m annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly a million inhabitants living in the crowded sprawling area, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the project, which is expected to take seven years to finish. Additional residents will be moved to wastelands and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, threatening to break up a historic social network. Certain individuals will not get housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be allocated units in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the evolved, shared lifestyle of living and working that has supported this area for generations.

Industries from tailoring to pottery and waste processing are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "business area" distant from residential areas.

Existential Threat

In the case of the leather artisan, a workshop owner and third generation inhabitant to live in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey operation makes apparel – sharp blazers, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Household members resides in the rooms underneath and employees and sewers – migrants from different regions – live on-site, enabling him to afford their labour. Away from the slum, housing costs are often significantly more expensive for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

At the administrative buildings in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative depicts a contrasting vision for the future. Fashionable residents move around on cycles and electric vehicles, buying continental bread and croissants and enlisting beverages on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and treat station. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains the neighborhood.

"This isn't development for us," says the protester. "It represents a huge land development that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Run by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the national leader – the corporation has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it denies.

Even as the state government calls it a partnership, the business group paid a significant amount for its majority share. A lawsuit alleging that the initiative was improperly granted to the developer is being considered in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to actively protest the development, local opponents claim they have been subjected to an extended period of coercion and warning – including messages, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the development was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by people they allege work for the developer.

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