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For months, intimidating phone calls recurred. At first, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, and then from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was called to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a expensive project where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces bulldozed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is unparalleled in the globe," explains the protester. "However the plan aims to destroy our community and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the area. Homes are built haphazardly and typically lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the environment is permeated by the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

To some, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We lack sufficient health services, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for kids to enjoy," says a tea vendor, in his fifties, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

But others, like the leather artisan, are opposing the plan.

None deny that this community, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they fear that this initiative – absent of public consultation – is one that will turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have resided there since generations ago.

These were these shunned, migrant workers who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and commercial output, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it a major informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is expected to take seven years to complete. Additional residents will be transferred to wastelands and saline fields on the far outskirts of the metropolis, potentially fragment a long-established social network. Some will receive no residences at all.

People eligible to continue living in Dharavi will be given units in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for generations.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to reduce in scale and be moved to an allocated "industrial sector" distant from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like this protester, a workshop owner and long-time inhabitant to call home this community, the plan presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-floor operation creates leather coats – formal jackets, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – marketed in premium stores in south Mumbai and internationally.

His family dwells in the accommodations below and his workers and sewers – laborers from different regions – also sleep there, permitting him to afford their labour. Outside the slum, accommodation prices are often tenfold costlier for a single room.

Threats and Warning

In the administrative buildings in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan illustrates an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed people gather on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, acquiring western-style bread and croissants and enlisting beverages on a terrace near a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that supports local residents.

"This represents no development for our community," explains Shaikh. "It represents a huge property transaction that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists concern of the development company. Headed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and an associate of the national leader – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Although administrative bodies describes it as a joint project, the corporation paid a significant amount for its majority share. Legal proceedings alleging that the initiative was improperly granted to the corporation is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members claim they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising messages, clear intimidation and suggestions that criticizing the development was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they assert are associated with 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