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Over an extended period, intimidating phone calls continued. Originally, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was called to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is one of many resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – will be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the world," says the protester. "But they want to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the settlement. Residences are constructed informally and often lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with two toilets is an optimistic future achieved.

"We lack sufficient health services, paved pathways or sewage systems and there's nowhere for children to play," explains a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The only way is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, like Shaikh, are resisting the redevelopment.

None deny that the slum, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. However they are concerned that this initiative – lacking resident participation – could potentially turn valuable urban land into an elite enclave, displacing the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these excluded, relocated individuals who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is valued at between a significant amount and $2m annually, making it a major unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly 1 million residents living in the crowded sprawling zone, fewer than half will be able for alternative accommodation in the development, which is projected to take a significant period to finish. Additional residents will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the remote edges of the city, risking fragment a generations-old neighborhood. Certain individuals will be denied homes at all.

People eligible to remain in Dharavi will be given flats in multi-story structures, a major break from the natural, collective approach of residing and operating that has supported Dharavi for so long.

Businesses from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are likely to decrease in quantity and be relocated to a designated "commercial zone" separated from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like this protester, a craftsman and long-time resident to live in the slum, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-floor operation produces garments – tailored coats, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – distributed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

His family resides in the accommodations downstairs and his workers and garment workers – migrants from other states – also sleep there, permitting him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are typically significantly more expensive for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the official facilities close by, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative shows a very different vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants gather on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, acquiring international bread and breakfast items and having coffee on a patio adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This depicts a world away from the affordable idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that supports local residents.

"This represents no progress for residents," says Shaikh. "It's a massive property transaction that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

While administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the business group paid $950m for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the corporation is under review in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to vocally oppose the project, local opponents state they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving communications, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by figures they allege work for the business conglomerate.

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