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Across several weeks, intimidating messages persisted. Initially, supposedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Finally, one resident claims he was called to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is one of many resisting a high-value initiative where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – will be demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the planet," states the protester. "Yet the plan aims to dismantle our way of life and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that loom over the neighborhood. Homes are constructed informally and typically without proper sanitation, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the air is permeated by the suffocating smell of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream come true.

"We don't have proper healthcare, roads or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The only way is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

But others, such as the leather artisan, are resisting the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they fear that this initiative – lacking resident participation – could potentially turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, forcing out the marginalized, working-class residents who have lived there since the late 1800s.

It was these excluded, relocated individuals who developed the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and business activity, whose output is worth between $1m and a substantial sum per year, making it a major informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer zone, a minority will be eligible for new homes in the development, which is estimated to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be moved to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, threatening to break up a generations-old social network. A portion will be denied residences at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the area will be allocated apartments in tower blocks, a substantial change from the evolved, collective approach of residing and operating that has supported this area for generations.

Commercial activities from clothing production to pottery and material recovery are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to a designated "industrial sector" separated from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like this protester, a leather artisan and third generation resident to call home the slum, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey workshop creates garments – formal jackets, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Household members resides in the rooms downstairs and employees and garment workers – laborers from other states – reside on-site, enabling him to sustain operations. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often significantly as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the government offices nearby, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan illustrates an alternative perspective. Slickly dressed people move around on bicycles and e-vehicles, purchasing international baguettes and breakfast items and socializing on a patio near a restaurant and Ice-Cream. It is a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for us," says the artisan. "This constitutes a huge property transaction that will price people out for us to survive."

There is also skepticism of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a close ally of the government head – the business group has been subject to claims of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a partnership, the corporation invested $950m for its controlling interest. A case alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the developer is pending in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to publicly resist the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been experienced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, direct threats and suggestions that speaking against the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by people they claim represent the developer.

Part of the group alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c