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For months, coercive messages recurred. Originally, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, and then from the police themselves. Ultimately, one resident asserts he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is one of many opposing a high-value project where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be razed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is like nowhere else in the globe," explains the resident. "However their intention is to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The narrow alleys of this community stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and elite residences that overshadow the area. Dwellings are built haphazardly and often lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is permeated by the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and homes with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream achieved.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," states a tea vendor, in his fifties, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The single option is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, such as Shaikh, are fighting against the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is desperately requiring investment and development. However they worry that this project – lacking community input – could potentially turn valuable urban land into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, working-class residents who have been there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who developed the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and commercial output, whose output is estimated at between a significant amount and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately 1 million inhabitants living in the dense 220-hectare neighborhood, fewer than half will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the project, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to wastelands and saline fields on the remote edges of the city, risking break up a generations-old community. Certain individuals will receive no housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be given apartments in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the natural, communal way of residing and operating that has supported this area for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to ceramic crafts and waste processing are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a designated "industrial sector" separated from homes.

Survival Challenge

For those such as the leather artisan, a workshop owner and multi-generational resident to call home this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-floor workshop produces garments – formal jackets, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – distributed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Household members lives in the spaces downstairs and employees and garment workers – migrants from other states – reside on-site, permitting him to sustain operations. Outside this community, Mumbai rents are typically tenfold more expensive for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

In the government offices close by, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project depicts an alternative outlook. Well-groomed residents mill about on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, acquiring continental baked goods and pastries and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area near Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. It is a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports Dharavi's community.

"This represents no improvement for our community," states the artisan. "It represents an enormous land development that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's concern of the development company. Managed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the government head – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

While local authorities labels it a partnership, the developer paid a significant amount for its majority share. A case alleging that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the developer is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to actively protest the project, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been experienced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – involving messages, direct threats and suggestions that criticizing the initiative was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by figures they assert represent the business conglomerate.

Among those accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c