🔗 Share this article

Across several weeks, coercive phone calls recurred. Originally, reportedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, later from the police themselves. In the end, one resident asserts he was called to the police station and told clearly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a multimillion-dollar project where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – will be razed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of this area is unparalleled in the world," says the resident. "Yet they want to destroy our community and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the area. Homes are built haphazardly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of open sewers.

To some, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and apartments with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have sufficient health services, paved pathways or sewage systems and there are no spaces for children to play," explains A Selvin Nadar, 56, who relocated from southern India in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

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

None deny that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. But they worry that this plan – lacking resident participation – might turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have lived there since generations ago.

It was these shunned, relocated individuals who developed the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and commercial output, whose economic value is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum annually, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Out of about one million residents living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, a minority will be able for replacement housing in the development, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Others will be relocated to wastelands and saline fields on the far outskirts of Mumbai, threatening to break up a long-established community. Some will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be given apartments in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the evolved, collective approach of residing and operating that has maintained this area for generations.

Industries from garment work to clay work and waste processing are likely to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" distant from residential areas.

Existential Threat

For residents like the leather artisan, a workshop owner and multi-generational resident to live in this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, multi-level operation produces leather coats – formal jackets, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and abroad.

Relatives dwells in the rooms below and laborers and garment workers – workers from different regions – also sleep on-site, enabling him to sustain operations. Away from Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are often tenfold more expensive for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

At the official facilities in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan illustrates an alternative perspective. Fashionable residents move around on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, acquiring continental baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. It is a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that sustains local residents.

"This represents no progress for residents," states the artisan. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the development company. Run by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and an associate of the national leader – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a joint project, the corporation paid a significant amount for its controlling interest. A lawsuit alleging that the project was unfairly awarded to the corporation is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the project, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – comprising messages, explicit warnings and suggestions that speaking against the initiative was equivalent to opposing national interests – by people they claim work for the developer.

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