Over an extended period, threatening messages persisted. At first, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, subsequently from the authorities. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to the police station and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.
The leather artisan is one of many resisting a expensive initiative where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be demolished and modernized by a large business group.
"The culture of this area is exceptional in the planet," says the protester. "But the plan aims to destroy our social fabric and stop us speaking out."
Contrasting Realities
The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that overshadow the neighborhood. Residences are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the environment is saturated with the overpowering odor of open sewers.
For certain residents, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, modern retail complexes and residences with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision come true.
"We lack adequate medical facilities, roads or sewage systems and we have no places for kids to enjoy," states A Selvin Nadar, 56, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to tear it all down and build us new homes."
Community Resistance
Yet certain residents, like this protester, are opposing the project.
All recognize that the slum, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. However they worry that this plan – without resident participation – is one that will transform premium city property into a luxury development, forcing out the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since the nineteenth century.
This involved these shunned, relocated individuals who established the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of community resilience and economic productivity, whose economic value is worth between one million dollars and two million dollars annually, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.
Resettlement Issues
Among approximately one million people living in the dense 220-hectare area, less than 50% will be qualified for replacement housing in the development, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. The remainder will be relocated to wastelands and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, threatening to break up a generations-old social network. Certain individuals will receive no homes at all.
Residents permitted to stay in Dharavi will be allocated units in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for so long.
Businesses from clothing production to clay work and recycling are expected to reduce in scale and be moved to an allocated "industrial sector" distant from people's residences.
Survival Challenge
In the case of this protester, a craftsman and third generation resident to reside in Dharavi, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-storey facility produces apparel – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.
His family resides in the accommodations underneath and his workers and garment workers – workers from different regions – live in the same building, permitting him to afford their labour. Outside this community, Mumbai rents are often tenfold costlier for a single room.
Pressure and Coercion
In the government offices nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project shows a very different vision for the future. Fashionable residents move around on cycles and e-vehicles, purchasing international baguettes and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area adjacent to a coffee shop and treat station. This depicts a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains Dharavi's community.
"This represents no development for us," states the artisan. "It represents a huge property transaction that will price people out for residents to remain."
Additionally, there exists distrust of the development company. Headed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it rejects.
Even as the state government calls it a partnership, the corporation invested a significant amount for its majority share. A case stating that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.
Sustained Harassment
After they started to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the project was comparable with speaking against the country – by individuals they allege work for the corporate group.
Included in these accused of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c
