Threats, Fear and Hope as Mumbai Residents Await the Bulldozers
Over an extended period, intimidating messages continued. Originally, allegedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, subsequently from the police themselves. In the end, one resident claims he was called to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.
This third-generation resident is part of a group fighting a multimillion-dollar initiative where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be razed and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.
"The distinctive community of the slum is exceptional in the world," says the protester. "However the plan aims to destroy our community and stop us speaking out."
Contrasting Realities
The cramped lanes of this community sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that overshadow the settlement. Residences are constructed informally and often missing basic amenities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the air is permeated by the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.
To some, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and homes with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision achieved.
"We lack proper healthcare, proper streets or sewage systems and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," explains a tea vendor, in his fifties, who moved from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."
Community Resistance
Yet certain residents, like this protester, are opposing the project.
None deny that this community, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need financial support and improvement. However they are concerned that this plan – absent of resident participation – is one that will transform premium city property into a playground for the rich, forcing out the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have lived there since generations ago.
It was these marginalized, relocated individuals who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is estimated at between a significant amount and a substantial sum per year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.
Displacement Concerns
Among approximately one million residents living in the dense 220-hectare area, fewer than half will be able for new homes in the project, which is estimated to take a significant period to finish. Others will be relocated to wastelands and coastal regions on the far outskirts of the city, potentially break up a generations-old community. Some will be denied housing at all.
People eligible to remain in the area will be allocated units in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, communal way of residing and operating that has sustained this area for so long.
Businesses from clothing production to ceramic crafts and recycling are projected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a designated "business area" far from people's residences.
Livelihood Crisis
In the case of the leather artisan, a leather artisan and third generation resident to live in the slum, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His informal, three-floor facility makes apparel – tailored coats, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and internationally.
His family dwells in the rooms underneath and employees and tailors – laborers from different regions – reside there, permitting him to sustain operations. Outside this community, housing costs are typically tenfold more expensive for basic accommodation.
Harassment and Intimidation
Within the government offices nearby, a visual representation of the Dharavi project depicts a very different outlook. Fashionable people mill about on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, acquiring western-style baked goods and croissants and having coffee on a terrace near a restaurant and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that supports Dharavi's community.
"This represents no improvement for us," states the artisan. "It represents a huge property transaction that will render it impossible for us to survive."
There is also skepticism of the corporate group. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the national leader – the business group has been subject to claims of favoritism and questionable practices, which it disputes.
While administrative bodies calls it a partnership, the business group paid nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the initiative was questionably assigned to the developer is being considered in India's supreme court.
Continued Intimidation
After they started to actively protest the project, protesters and community members state they have been experienced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving communications, clear intimidation and suggestions that criticizing the development was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by individuals they allege are associated with the corporate group.
Among those accused of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c
