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Over an extended period, coercive communications continued. Originally, supposedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. In the end, one resident states he was ordered to the police station and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is part of a group fighting a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the planet," explains Shaikh. "However their intention is to dismantle our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and elite residences that loom over the area. Residences are built haphazardly and often without proper sanitation, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is saturated with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and homes with proper sanitation is an optimistic future realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, paved pathways or drainage and we have no places for children to play," states A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

However, some, including the leather artisan, are resisting the plan.

None deny that the slum, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. But they are concerned that this initiative – without resident participation – is one that will convert valuable urban land into an elite enclave, displacing the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the nineteenth century.

It was these excluded, migrant workers who established the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and business activity, whose output is valued at between one million dollars and a substantial sum a year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly a million people living in the crowded sprawling area, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the project, which is projected to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be relocated to wastelands and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, threatening to break up a long-established social network. Some will receive no homes at all.

Those allowed to continue living in Dharavi will be given units in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for so long.

Businesses from garment work to pottery and material recovery are projected to shrink in number and be transferred to a specific "business area" distant from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

In the case of Shaikh, a leather artisan and third generation inhabitant to reside in this community, the plan presents a survival challenge. His informal, multi-level operation makes garments – formal jackets, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – sold in premium stores in south Mumbai and internationally.

Relatives dwells in the accommodations below and laborers and sewers – laborers from other states – also sleep in the same building, enabling him to manage costs. Outside this community, accommodation prices are often 10 times costlier for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the official facilities nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative illustrates a contrasting outlook. Fashionable inhabitants mill about on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, buying western-style bread and pastries and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that supports local residents.

"This isn't improvement for our community," explains the protester. "It represents an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the development company. Headed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the government head – the business group has faced accusations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Although administrative bodies describes it as a partnership, the corporation paid $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.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to publicly resist the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been faced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – involving messages, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the project was equivalent to opposing national interests – by figures they allege represent the corporate group.

Part of the group alleged to have issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c