Threats, Fear and Hope as Mumbai Residents Confront the Bulldozers

For months, threatening phone calls recurred. At first, supposedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is part of a group opposing a high-value initiative where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces demolished and modernized by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is exceptional in the world," states the protester. "However their intention is to eradicate our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the neighborhood. Dwellings are assembled randomly and typically missing basic amenities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is permeated by the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and apartments with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We don't have proper healthcare, proper streets or sewage systems and there's nowhere for children to play," says A Selvin Nadar, 56, who relocated from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

However, some, such as the leather artisan, are opposing the plan.

All recognize that this community, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need financial support and improvement. But they fear that this initiative – lacking community input – could potentially transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, forcing out the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who built up the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and commercial output, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly one million people living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, fewer than half will be able for new homes in the project, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to finish. Additional residents will be moved to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of Mumbai, threatening to divide a long-established community. Certain individuals will be denied housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be given apartments in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the natural, communal way of residing and operating that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are likely to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a designated "industrial sector" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as Shaikh, a craftsman and multi-generational inhabitant to call home this community, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey facility makes garments – sharp blazers, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Household members lives in the spaces underneath and laborers and sewers – laborers from other states – also sleep in the same building, allowing him to afford their labour. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are typically significantly as high for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

Within the official facilities nearby, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan illustrates a very different vision for the future. Well-groomed people gather on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, purchasing continental baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and treat station. This represents a world away from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains the neighborhood.

"This is not development for us," explains Shaikh. "It's an enormous real estate deal that will render it impossible for us to survive."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Managed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and an associate of the government head – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Although the state government describes it as a collaborative effort, the corporation contributed $950m for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the project was improperly granted to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to actively protest the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been faced a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – including phone calls, direct threats and insinuations that criticizing the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by people they claim work for the business conglomerate.

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