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Across several weeks, threatening messages persisted. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Finally, one resident states he was called to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is part of a group opposing a expensive initiative where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be razed and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of the slum is exceptional in the globe," explains Shaikh. "However the plan aims to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that loom over the settlement. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the environment is saturated with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and residences with two toilets is a hopeful vision come true.

"We don't have proper healthcare, roads or sewage systems and there's nowhere for children to play," explains a tea vendor, in his fifties, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The single option is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

However, some, including Shaikh, are resisting the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they fear that this initiative – lacking public consultation – might transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, forcing out the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have been there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these shunned, migrant workers who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between a significant amount and $2m per year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately one million residents living in the packed sprawling zone, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the project, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to barren areas and coastal regions on the remote edges of the metropolis, risking divide a historic community. Some will receive no residences at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the neighborhood will be given flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of living and working that has supported the community for generations.

Industries from tailoring to pottery and material recovery are likely to decrease in quantity and be relocated to a specific "industrial sector" far from homes.

Survival Challenge

For those such as Shaikh, a craftsman and third generation of his family to call home Dharavi, the project presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-floor workshop creates garments – tailored coats, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – distributed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family lives in the accommodations below and laborers and sewers – workers from north India – also sleep in the same building, permitting him to afford their labour. Beyond this community, Mumbai rents are typically significantly as high for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

At the government offices nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative shows an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed inhabitants move around on cycles and e-vehicles, buying western-style bread and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't development for our community," explains Shaikh. "It's a huge property transaction that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

There is also distrust of the development company. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the national leader – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it denies.

While the state government labels it a partnership, the developer contributed nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A case stating that the project was unfairly awarded to the business group is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to actively protest the development, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – involving communications, direct threats and implications that opposing the development was comparable with speaking against the country – by figures they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

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