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Across several weeks, coercive messages recurred. At first, allegedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Finally, one resident claims he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is one of many fighting a multimillion-dollar initiative where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of the slum is exceptional in the globe," states the protester. "However their intention is to destroy our social fabric and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Residences are constructed informally and typically missing basic amenities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the environment is saturated with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and residences with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"We lack proper healthcare, proper streets or sewage systems and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," says a tea vendor, in his fifties, who moved from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The single option is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

However, some, including Shaikh, are fighting against the plan.

All recognize that the slum, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this project – absent of public consultation – might turn premium city property into a luxury development, evicting the marginalized, migrant communities who have lived there since the late 1800s.

It was these shunned, relocated individuals who built up the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and commercial output, whose output is valued at between $1m and a substantial sum per year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Out of about a million residents living in the dense sprawling zone, fewer than half will be eligible for new homes in the development, which is projected to take seven years to finish. Others will be moved to wastelands and salt plains on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking break up a long-established social network. A portion will not get homes at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the neighborhood will be given units in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained Dharavi for so long.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and recycling are likely to shrink in number and be relocated to an allocated "business area" distant from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like this protester, a craftsman and long-time of his family to live in this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-floor workshop creates apparel – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

His family resides in the spaces below and his workers and tailors – migrants from different regions – live in the same building, permitting him to sustain operations. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often 10 times as high for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the government offices nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan shows an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed inhabitants move around on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring western-style bread and pastries and socializing on a patio outside a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This is not development for our community," states the protester. "It's a huge property transaction that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also distrust of the development company. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the government head – the business group has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Even as the state government labels it a joint project, the developer invested a significant amount for its majority share. Legal proceedings claiming that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the business group is being considered in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to an extended period of pressure and threats – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the project was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they assert work for the business conglomerate.

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