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For months, intimidating communications continued. At first, reportedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, and then from the police themselves. Ultimately, one resident asserts he was ordered to the police station and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is among those opposing a expensive project where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be demolished and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," explains the protester. "Yet their intention is to eradicate our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of this community sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the area. Dwellings are constructed informally and typically without proper sanitation, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is permeated by the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and homes with two toilets is an optimistic future come true.

"We lack proper healthcare, roads or sewage systems and we have no places for children to play," explains a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

However, some, such as the leather artisan, are resisting the redevelopment.

None deny that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. But they fear that this plan – lacking public consultation – could potentially turn premium city property into an elite enclave, displacing the marginalized, working-class residents who have resided there since generations ago.

It was these excluded, migrant workers who established the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and commercial output, whose output is estimated at between one million dollars and two million dollars per year, making it a major informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly one million residents living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, less than 50% will be qualified for new homes in the development, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be relocated to barren areas and saline fields on the far outskirts of the metropolis, risking fragment a historic neighborhood. A portion will be denied residences at all.

People eligible to continue living in Dharavi will be provided apartments in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has maintained this area for generations.

Commercial activities from garment work to clay work and waste processing are projected to reduce in scale and be relocated to a specific "business area" separated from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as this protester, a leather artisan and third generation resident to reside in this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, multi-level facility creates leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Household members lives in the accommodations below and laborers and sewers – laborers from other states – also sleep in the same building, permitting him to sustain operations. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are typically 10 times more expensive for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative shows a very different outlook. Fashionable residents mill about on cycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing international baked goods and croissants and having coffee on a patio outside a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that supports the neighborhood.

"This is not progress for residents," says the protester. "This constitutes a huge property transaction that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

There is also concern of the business conglomerate. Headed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the national leader – the corporation has been subject to claims of favoritism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Although the state government calls it a partnership, the corporation paid $950m for its majority share. A case alleging that the project was questionably assigned to the business group is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to publicly resist the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been experienced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – involving phone calls, direct threats and insinuations that opposing the development was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they claim are associated with the developer.

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