Threats, Anxiety and Optimism as India's financial capital Slum Dwellers Face the Bulldozers

Across several weeks, threatening phone calls persisted. At first, reportedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the authorities. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was ordered to the local precinct and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is part of a group opposing a high-value initiative where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," says the protester. "Yet their intention is to destroy our social fabric and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of this community present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and elite residences that loom over the settlement. Residences are assembled randomly and typically lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is saturated with the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, contemporary malls and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We lack proper healthcare, roads or sewage systems and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who relocated from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, including Shaikh, are fighting against the project.

All recognize that the slum, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need investment and development. But they worry that this project – without public consultation – is one that will convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since the late 1800s.

This involved these shunned, displaced people who built up the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and business activity, whose production is valued at between one million dollars and $2m annually, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly a million residents living in the packed 220-hectare area, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be transferred to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, risking divide a generations-old community. A portion will receive no residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the evolved, shared lifestyle of living and working that has maintained the community for generations.

Businesses from tailoring to clay work and material recovery are expected to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as Shaikh, a leather artisan and long-time resident to reside in this community, the project presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-storey workshop produces leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – distributed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Relatives dwells in the rooms below and employees and tailors – laborers from other states – reside there, permitting him to sustain operations. Outside this community, accommodation prices are often tenfold costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

In the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative shows an alternative perspective. Well-groomed people mill about on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, buying western-style baguettes and pastries and enlisting beverages on a patio near a coffee shop and treat station. This depicts a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that supports the neighborhood.

"This isn't development for residents," states the protester. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will price people out for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the business conglomerate. Managed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a close ally of the government head – the corporation has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it denies.

Although administrative bodies labels it a partnership, the corporation contributed nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A case claiming that the project was improperly granted to the business group is being considered in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the development, local opponents state they have been faced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – involving communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that opposing the project was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they allege represent the business conglomerate.

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