🔗 Share this article

Over an extended period, coercive messages recurred. Originally, allegedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, later from law enforcement directly. Finally, one resident states he was called to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is among those fighting a multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and transformed by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of the slum is exceptional in the globe," says the protester. "Yet they want to destroy our social fabric and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the settlement. Residences are assembled randomly and typically missing basic amenities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future come true.

"We lack proper healthcare, proper streets or drainage and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," explains A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

But others, including this protester, are resisting the redevelopment.

All recognize that the slum, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. However they worry that this project – without public consultation – could potentially convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, evicting the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have resided there since generations ago.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose economic value is estimated at between one million dollars and two million dollars a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly a million people living in the crowded sprawling area, a minority will be qualified for replacement housing in the project, which is estimated to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be relocated to barren areas and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking divide a generations-old neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the area will be given flats in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the natural, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for many years.

Commercial activities from tailoring to pottery and material recovery are projected to decrease in quantity and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of this protester, a craftsman and third generation resident to call home this community, the plan presents a survival challenge. His informal, multi-level facility makes garments – tailored coats, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – sold in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Household members dwells in the rooms downstairs and laborers and garment workers – migrants from north India – reside on-site, permitting him to manage costs. Beyond this community, accommodation prices are often significantly more expensive for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

In the government offices nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative depicts a contrasting perspective. Well-groomed inhabitants mill about on cycles and e-vehicles, buying international baguettes and breakfast items and socializing on a patio outside a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This depicts a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that sustains local residents.

"This is not progress for our community," explains Shaikh. "It represents an enormous property transaction that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

There is also concern of the business conglomerate. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the national leader – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it denies.

Although the state government describes it as a partnership, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. Legal proceedings stating that the project was improperly granted to the corporation is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the project, protesters and community members claim they have been experienced an extended period of pressure and threats – including communications, clear intimidation and implications that criticizing the initiative was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by people they claim work for the business conglomerate.

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