Threats, Anxiety and Hope as India's financial capital Slum Dwellers Face the Bulldozers

Over an extended period, coercive phone calls recurred. Originally, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, later from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was called to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is part of a group opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and modernized by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the planet," explains Shaikh. "Yet the plan aims to eradicate our community and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of the slum present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the settlement. Residences are constructed informally and frequently missing basic amenities, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the environment is saturated with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

For certain residents, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, contemporary malls and residences with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future come true.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, proper streets or drainage and we have no places for children to play," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who relocated from southern India in that period. "The only way is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

But others, like Shaikh, are opposing the project.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. Yet they fear that this project – lacking community input – might transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, migrant workers who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and commercial output, whose production is estimated at between a significant amount and two million dollars per year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately 1 million residents living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, a minority will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Others will be moved to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the far outskirts of the city, threatening to break up a generations-old neighborhood. A portion will be denied homes at all.

People eligible to remain in the area will be given flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of living and working that has sustained Dharavi for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to decrease in quantity and be relocated to an allocated "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For residents like the leather artisan, a leather artisan and long-time resident to call home this community, the plan presents an existential threat. His makeshift, multi-level operation produces apparel – formal jackets, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members dwells in the rooms underneath and employees and garment workers – laborers from other states – reside in the same building, permitting him to sustain operations. Outside this community, housing costs are typically tenfold costlier for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

At the official facilities in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative illustrates a very different perspective. Well-groomed inhabitants mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring western-style baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains the neighborhood.

"This is not improvement for our community," states the protester. "It's a massive real estate deal that will price people out for our community to continue."

There is also distrust of the development company. Headed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and an associate of the government head – the conglomerate has faced accusations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

While local authorities labels it a partnership, the corporation contributed a significant amount for its controlling interest. A case stating that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the developer is pending in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the development, protesters and community members claim they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – comprising messages, direct threats and insinuations that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by people they allege are associated with the developer.

Among those suspected of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c