Intimidation, Apprehension and Hope as Mumbai Inhabitants Face Redevelopment

Across several weeks, coercive communications continued. Initially, supposedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, later from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident states he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is one of many resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be demolished and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is unparalleled in the planet," says the resident. "However the plan aims to eradicate our social fabric and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The narrow alleys of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and elite residences that dominate the area. Homes are built haphazardly and typically lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the environment is filled with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

To some, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and residences with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"We lack proper healthcare, proper streets or drainage and there are no spaces for children to play," says A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, such as the leather artisan, are opposing the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this project – absent of public consultation – might turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

These were these excluded, displaced people who established the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and business activity, whose output is estimated at between a significant amount and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately one million inhabitants living in the packed sprawling zone, a minority will be qualified for replacement housing in the project, which is estimated to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be relocated to wastelands and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, risking fragment a generations-old community. A portion will receive no housing at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the neighborhood will be provided flats in tower blocks, a major break from the organic, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has supported the community for so long.

Commercial activities from garment work to clay work and recycling are expected to decrease in quantity and be moved to a designated "industrial sector" separated from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as this protester, a leather artisan and multi-generational of his family to reside in the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His informal, multi-level facility produces apparel – sharp blazers, luxury coats, fashionable garments – distributed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family lives in the accommodations underneath and employees and sewers – laborers from different regions – live on-site, allowing him to afford their labour. Outside Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are typically tenfold as high for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the government offices in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan depicts an alternative perspective. Well-groomed people mill about on bicycles and e-vehicles, acquiring international baked goods and croissants and socializing on a patio outside Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that supports the neighborhood.

"This isn't improvement for our community," says Shaikh. "It's an enormous land development that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the national leader – the corporation has been subject to claims of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Even as administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A case alleging that the project was improperly granted to the developer is pending in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the project, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and suggestions that speaking against the initiative was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by figures they claim are associated with the business conglomerate.

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