🔗 Share this article

Over an extended period, intimidating phone calls persisted. Initially, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, subsequently from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is part of a group opposing a multimillion-dollar initiative where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – will be demolished and transformed by a large business group.

"The culture of this area is unparalleled in the world," explains the resident. "However the plan aims to dismantle our community and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the area. Homes are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is saturated with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of premium apartments, neat parks, modern retail complexes and apartments with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, roads or water management and we have no places for children to play," explains A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who moved from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, including Shaikh, are opposing the project.

None deny that this community, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need economic input and modernization. However they fear that this project – absent of community input – might transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, forcing out the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have resided there since the late 1800s.

This involved these shunned, displaced people who developed the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about a million inhabitants living in the crowded 220-hectare area, less than 50% will be eligible for replacement housing in the development, which is estimated to take seven years to complete. Additional residents will be transferred to wastelands and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, risking fragment a historic community. Certain individuals will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to stay in the neighborhood will be provided units in multi-story structures, a major break from the natural, collective approach of residing and operating that has sustained Dharavi for so long.

Commercial activities from clothing production to clay work and recycling are projected to shrink in number and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a workshop owner and third generation inhabitant to live in this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-floor facility creates apparel – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – marketed in premium stores in south Mumbai and overseas.

Household members lives in the spaces below and employees and garment workers – laborers from different regions – also sleep on-site, enabling him to sustain operations. Beyond this community, Mumbai rents are frequently tenfold as high for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

At the official facilities in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative shows an alternative outlook. Fashionable people gather on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring western-style baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area outside a restaurant and treat station. This depicts a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This is not improvement for residents," states the artisan. "This constitutes a massive real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

There is also skepticism of the development company. Headed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

While the state government labels it a joint project, the corporation invested a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the corporation is being considered in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to vocally oppose the redevelopment, protesters and community members claim they have been faced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – including phone calls, explicit warnings and implications that criticizing the project was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by individuals they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

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