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Over an extended period, coercive phone calls continued. At first, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, subsequently from the police themselves. Ultimately, a local artisan asserts he was called to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a high-value initiative where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a large business group.

"The culture of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," says the resident. "But their intention is to eradicate our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the area. Homes are constructed informally and typically missing basic amenities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have proper healthcare, roads or drainage and there are no spaces for children to play," states a chai seller, 56, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

However, some, including this protester, are opposing the project.

All recognize that the slum, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. But they worry that this plan – without community input – could potentially transform valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these marginalized, migrant workers who established the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and business activity, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and $2m a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Out of about one million residents living in the crowded sprawling neighborhood, a minority will be eligible for new homes in the development, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to barren areas and saline fields on the far outskirts of the metropolis, risking break up a historic community. A portion will receive no residences at all.

People eligible to remain in Dharavi will be allocated apartments in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the natural, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for so long.

Industries from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are expected to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "business area" separated from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as the leather artisan, a workshop owner and multi-generational inhabitant to live in the slum, the project presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-floor operation makes garments – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Household members lives in the spaces underneath and laborers and tailors – workers from different regions – also sleep there, allowing him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are typically 10 times costlier for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the official facilities nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative depicts a very different perspective. Fashionable inhabitants mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, buying international baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area outside a coffee shop and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This represents no improvement for us," states the protester. "This constitutes an enormous land development that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the national leader – the corporation has encountered allegations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Even as local authorities describes it as a collaborative effort, the corporation contributed nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. Legal proceedings alleging that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the business group is being considered in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the development, local opponents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising messages, clear intimidation and implications that criticizing the project was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they allege represent the developer.

Part of the group accused of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c