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Across several weeks, intimidating phone calls persisted. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, and then from the authorities. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was called to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is one of many resisting a expensive initiative where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – will be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is exceptional in the world," says the protester. "However the plan aims to destroy our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that dominate the area. Homes are assembled randomly and often lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

For certain residents, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and apartments with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future come true.

"There's no sufficient health services, roads or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," states a chai seller, in his fifties, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, like this protester, are fighting against the project.

None deny that this community, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need investment and development. But they worry that this initiative – lacking community input – might convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these shunned, migrant workers who developed the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and business activity, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and $2m a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately one million people living in the dense 220-hectare zone, a minority will be able for new homes in the project, which is expected to take seven years to complete. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, potentially break up a long-established community. Some will receive no residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be provided apartments in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for generations.

Industries from garment work to pottery and material recovery are likely to shrink in number and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" distant from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of this protester, a leather artisan and third generation of his family to call home the slum, the project presents an existential threat. His rickety, multi-level facility produces apparel – tailored coats, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members resides in the rooms downstairs and his workers and tailors – workers from other states – live on-site, allowing him to sustain operations. Beyond the slum, housing costs are often tenfold more expensive for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

In the administrative buildings nearby, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan illustrates a contrasting outlook. Slickly dressed inhabitants gather on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, buying continental baguettes and croissants and having coffee on a patio adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This depicts a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains the neighborhood.

"This isn't development for us," says the protester. "It represents a massive land development that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Although administrative bodies describes it as a joint project, the developer contributed $950m for its majority share. A lawsuit stating that the initiative was questionably assigned to the corporation is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to publicly resist the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving communications, clear intimidation and suggestions that speaking against the initiative was comparable with opposing national interests – by figures they assert are associated with the corporate group.

Among those alleged to have making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c