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Over an extended period, intimidating communications persisted. Initially, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, later from the police themselves. In the end, a local artisan states he was ordered to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is one of many resisting a multimillion-dollar project where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the globe," explains the resident. "However their intention is to dismantle our way of life and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Homes are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and homes with two toilets is an optimistic future come true.

"We lack proper healthcare, proper streets or drainage and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," explains a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from his home state in the early eighties. "The only way is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

But others, including Shaikh, are opposing the plan.

All recognize that this community, historically ignored as informal housing, is desperately requiring investment and development. However they fear that this project – without public consultation – might convert valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have been there since the nineteenth century.

It was these excluded, migrant workers who developed the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and business activity, whose economic value is estimated at between one million dollars and two million dollars per year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately one million residents living in the dense 220-hectare neighborhood, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the development, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to finish. The remainder will be transferred to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the distant periphery of the metropolis, threatening to divide a historic neighborhood. Certain individuals will receive no residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be given units in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of residing and operating that has sustained Dharavi for so long.

Industries from tailoring to ceramic crafts and recycling are likely to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "industrial sector" far from homes.

Survival Challenge

For those such as Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time inhabitant to call home the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey operation creates apparel – formal jackets, luxury coats, fashionable garments – sold in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the rooms below and employees and sewers – migrants from north India – also sleep on-site, enabling him to sustain operations. Outside the slum, housing costs are often significantly more expensive for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

In the government offices close by, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan shows a very different vision for the future. Fashionable people move around on cycles and e-vehicles, acquiring western-style baguettes and breakfast items and having coffee on a patio near a restaurant and treat station. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't progress for residents," explains the protester. "It's a huge land development that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's concern of the business conglomerate. Run by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the national leader – the corporation has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it denies.

Although the state government calls it a joint project, the developer invested $950m for its majority share. Legal proceedings alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents claim they have been experienced a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – involving messages, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the project was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they assert work for the developer.

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