Pressure, Apprehension and Optimism as Mumbai Slum Dwellers Face Redevelopment

Across several weeks, threatening messages persisted. Originally, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to the police station and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is one of many opposing a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces demolished and modernized by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of the slum is exceptional in the world," says the resident. "However they want to destroy our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the settlement. Homes are constructed informally and often missing basic amenities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the air is filled with the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and homes with two toilets is an optimistic future achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, paved pathways or sewage systems and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," states a chai seller, 56, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

But others, like the leather artisan, are resisting the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need financial support and improvement. However they are concerned that this project – without community input – is one that will turn premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the marginalized, migrant communities who have been there since generations ago.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who established the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and commercial output, whose production is valued at between a significant amount and two million dollars per year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly 1 million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare neighborhood, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is expected to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the far outskirts of the metropolis, potentially divide a historic community. Some will not get residences at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be given flats in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the evolved, communal way of living and working that has sustained the community for many years.

Industries from tailoring to pottery and material recovery are projected to shrink in number and be transferred to a specific "commercial zone" far from homes.

Survival Challenge

For residents like this protester, a workshop owner and third generation inhabitant to live in the slum, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-floor operation creates apparel – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and abroad.

Relatives resides in the rooms below and laborers and sewers – laborers from different regions – also sleep on-site, allowing him to sustain operations. Beyond the slum, Mumbai rents are typically 10 times more expensive for a single room.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings nearby, a visual representation of the transformation initiative shows a very different perspective. Fashionable residents mill about on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, acquiring continental baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on a terrace adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't progress for us," explains the protester. "It's a massive property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's concern of the corporate group. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the government head – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it denies.

Even as local authorities calls it a joint project, the business group contributed a significant amount for its majority share. A case stating that the project was improperly granted to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the project, local opponents assert they have been experienced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – involving phone calls, direct threats and implications that speaking against the project was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by figures they assert are associated with the business conglomerate.

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