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Across several weeks, coercive messages continued. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident asserts he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is unparalleled in the planet," states Shaikh. "Yet they want to eradicate our community and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Dwellings are assembled randomly and typically missing basic amenities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the air is filled with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and homes 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," states a chai seller, 56, who relocated from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

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

All recognize that the slum, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. But they worry that this initiative – absent of community input – is one that will turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the marginalized, migrant communities who have resided there since generations ago.

These were these marginalized, migrant workers who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is estimated at between a significant amount and a substantial sum annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Out of about a million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare neighborhood, fewer than half will be qualified for replacement housing in the project, which is estimated to take seven years to accomplish. The remainder will be relocated to barren areas and coastal regions on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking break up a long-established neighborhood. A portion will not get housing at all.

Residents permitted to remain in Dharavi will be given units in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained this area for many years.

Businesses from garment work to pottery and waste processing are projected to reduce in scale and be transferred to a specific "industrial sector" distant from homes.

Survival Challenge

For those such as this protester, a leather artisan and third generation resident to call home Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor workshop creates leather coats – formal jackets, suede trenches, decorated jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family lives in the spaces below and laborers and tailors – migrants from different regions – also sleep there, enabling him to afford their labour. Away from this community, housing costs are typically significantly more expensive for a single room.

Threats and Warning

In the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative depicts a very different perspective. Well-groomed people gather on bicycles and e-vehicles, buying international baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a patio near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that supports local residents.

"This isn't progress for our community," states the protester. "It's a huge land development that will price people out for residents to remain."

There is also distrust of the corporate group. Headed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

While local authorities labels it a joint project, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit alleging that the project was questionably assigned to the business group is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to actively protest the project, local opponents assert they have been subjected to an extended period of coercion and warning – comprising phone calls, direct threats and implications that criticizing the development was tantamount to speaking against the country – by individuals they claim work for the corporate group.

Among those alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c