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For months, intimidating phone calls persisted. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from law enforcement directly. In the end, one resident states he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a multimillion-dollar initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – will be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of this area is unparalleled in the globe," states the protester. "Yet the plan aims to destroy our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that overshadow the area. Homes are built haphazardly and typically lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the air is saturated with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and apartments with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"There's no sufficient health services, proper streets or sewage systems and there's nowhere for children to play," explains A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who migrated from his home state in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, including this protester, are opposing the plan.

None deny that the slum, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. Yet they fear that this project – lacking public consultation – could potentially convert premium city property into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since generations ago.

These were these shunned, migrant workers who established the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and business activity, whose production is worth between a significant amount and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly a million people living in the packed 220-hectare neighborhood, less than 50% will be eligible for replacement housing in the project, which is estimated to take a significant period to finish. Additional residents will be relocated to wastelands and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking fragment a generations-old social network. Certain individuals will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be provided flats in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the natural, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has supported the community for so long.

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

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like Shaikh, a craftsman and long-time resident to call home this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, multi-level facility produces leather coats – tailored coats, luxury coats, decorated jackets – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the spaces underneath and employees and tailors – migrants from north India – live in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are typically significantly as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the administrative buildings close by, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative outlook. Slickly dressed people mill about on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, acquiring international baguettes and breakfast items and socializing on a terrace outside a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no improvement for residents," says the protester. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the development company. Managed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it denies.

Although administrative bodies describes it as a joint project, the business group paid a significant amount for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the business group is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – including communications, direct threats and suggestions that speaking against the development was equivalent to opposing national interests – by individuals they allege work for the corporate group.

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