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For months, coercive phone calls persisted. At first, reportedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. Finally, a local artisan states he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is one of many fighting a expensive redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces razed and modernized by a large business group.

"The culture of this area is unparalleled in the world," explains the protester. "Yet they want to destroy our community and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the neighborhood. Homes are built haphazardly and often missing basic amenities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is filled with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and residences 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 youth to recreate," states a chai seller, fifty-six, who relocated from southern India in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

However, some, including the leather artisan, are fighting against the project.

All recognize that Dharavi, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need investment and development. But they are concerned that this plan – without community input – could potentially turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, forcing out the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

This involved these marginalized, displaced people who established the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is worth between one million dollars and $2m a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about a million people living in the dense sprawling area, less than 50% will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, threatening to break up a long-established community. Certain individuals will be denied homes at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the area will be provided flats in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the natural, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for so long.

Commercial activities from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be transferred to a designated "business area" distant from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

In the case of this protester, a workshop owner and long-time resident to live in the slum, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-floor facility makes garments – formal jackets, luxury coats, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Household members dwells in the spaces below and his workers and tailors – laborers from north India – live in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are frequently significantly as high for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

In the official facilities close by, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan depicts a contrasting outlook. Well-groomed residents move around on cycles and eco-friendly transport, acquiring continental baguettes and pastries and having coffee on a patio near a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. It is a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that supports local residents.

"This is not improvement for residents," says the artisan. "It's an enormous property transaction that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the business conglomerate. Run by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it denies.

Even as local authorities labels it a collaborative effort, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. Legal proceedings claiming that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the project, local opponents claim they have been faced a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – including messages, explicit warnings and suggestions that opposing the development was equivalent to opposing national interests – by individuals they assert work for the business conglomerate.

Included in these suspected of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c