🔗 Share this article

Over an extended period, coercive phone calls recurred. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from law enforcement directly. In the end, a local artisan asserts he was called to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is part of a group opposing a high-value initiative where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be razed and transformed by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of the slum is exceptional in the globe," explains the resident. "But their intention is to dismantle our community and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Homes are constructed informally and often missing basic amenities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is filled with the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, roads or water management and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who migrated from his home state in the early eighties. "The only way is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

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

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they are concerned that this initiative – absent of resident participation – is one that will turn premium city property into a luxury development, evicting the marginalized, migrant communities who have lived there since generations ago.

This involved these excluded, migrant workers who established the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose production is estimated at between one million dollars and a substantial sum per year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately one million residents living in the crowded sprawling neighborhood, a minority will be qualified for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to complete. Additional residents will be transferred to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the remote edges of the city, threatening to break up a historic community. A portion will not get residences at all.

People eligible to remain in the neighborhood will be given apartments in tower blocks, a substantial change from the natural, collective approach of residing and operating that has maintained this area for so long.

Businesses from tailoring to pottery and waste processing are projected to decrease in quantity and be relocated to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as the leather artisan, a craftsman and long-time resident to reside in the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-storey operation produces leather coats – formal jackets, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – distributed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members dwells in the rooms downstairs and laborers and tailors – laborers from north India – live in the same building, allowing him to manage costs. Outside Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are frequently significantly costlier for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan illustrates a contrasting vision for the future. Slickly dressed people move around on bicycles and electric vehicles, purchasing continental bread and pastries and socializing on a patio near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This is not development for us," states Shaikh. "It represents a huge real estate deal that will price people out for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the development company. Run by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the business group has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it denies.

Although the state government describes it as a joint project, the corporation invested a significant amount for its 80% stake. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the corporation is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to vocally oppose the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – involving messages, clear intimidation and suggestions that opposing the project was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they assert work for the developer.

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