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Over an extended period, intimidating messages persisted. At first, supposedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan claims he was summoned to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is among those fighting a expensive redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of this area is exceptional in the globe," states the protester. "But their intention is to dismantle our way of life and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the area. Homes are constructed informally and often lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of open sewers.

To some, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and homes with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future come true.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or drainage and we have no places for kids to enjoy," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, like this protester, are resisting the project.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, historically ignored as informal housing, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. However they are concerned that this plan – without resident participation – could potentially transform premium city property into a luxury development, evicting the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the nineteenth century.

These were these shunned, relocated individuals who developed the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and business activity, whose output is worth between $1m and $2m a year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly 1 million people living in the dense 220-hectare neighborhood, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take seven years to complete. The remainder will be moved to barren areas and salt plains on the distant periphery of the city, potentially break up a historic community. Some will not get housing at all.

People eligible to continue living in Dharavi will be allocated apartments in tower blocks, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of living and working that has sustained the community for so long.

Industries from tailoring to pottery and recycling are likely to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "commercial zone" far from homes.

Existential Threat

In the case of the leather artisan, a leather artisan and third generation resident to live in Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor facility makes leather coats – formal jackets, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives resides in the rooms underneath and his workers and sewers – migrants from different regions – live on-site, permitting him to afford their labour. Outside the slum, Mumbai rents are typically 10 times as high for a single room.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices close by, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative depicts an alternative outlook. Fashionable residents mill about on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, purchasing international baguettes and croissants and having coffee on a terrace outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This represents no improvement for us," states Shaikh. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also distrust of the corporate group. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the government head – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Even as administrative bodies describes it as a partnership, the business group paid $950m for its controlling interest. A case stating that the project was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to publicly resist the development, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – including phone calls, direct threats and suggestions that speaking against the project was tantamount to speaking against the country – by individuals they allege work for the developer.

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