Threats, Fear and Aspiration as Mumbai Residents Await Redevelopment
Over an extended period, threatening communications persisted. At first, reportedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. In the end, a local artisan states he was ordered to the police station and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.
Shaikh is one of many fighting a multimillion-dollar initiative where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be demolished and transformed by a large business group.
"The culture of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the planet," explains the resident. "But their intention is to dismantle our community and silence our voices."
Opposing Environments
The dank gullies of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Homes are constructed informally and typically without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.
Among some individuals, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and residences with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future come true.
"We don't have adequate medical facilities, roads or sewage systems and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," says a tea vendor, 56, who moved from southern India in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."
Community Resistance
But others, such as this protester, are resisting the plan.
Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they worry that this project – without public consultation – could potentially turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.
These were these marginalized, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars per year, making it a major unofficial markets.
Displacement Concerns
Out of about 1 million residents living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the development, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. Others will be transferred to wastelands and saline fields on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking divide a generations-old neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get residences at all.
Residents permitted to remain in the area will be allocated units in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the natural, communal way of living and working that has maintained Dharavi for generations.
Industries from clothing production to clay work and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be relocated to a designated "business area" far from residential areas.
Livelihood Crisis
In the case of Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time resident to live in Dharavi, the project presents an existential threat. His informal, multi-level facility creates apparel – formal jackets, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – distributed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.
His family dwells in the spaces underneath and employees and sewers – workers from north India – reside in the same building, permitting him to afford their labour. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are frequently 10 times as high for minimal space.
Pressure and Coercion
Within the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan depicts a very different perspective. Slickly dressed inhabitants gather on bicycles and e-vehicles, purchasing western-style baguettes and pastries and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area near a coffee shop and treat station. This represents a world away from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that sustains local residents.
"This isn't development for residents," states the artisan. "This constitutes a massive property transaction that will price people out for our community to continue."
Additionally, there exists distrust of the corporate group. Headed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.
Even as the state government calls it a partnership, the business group invested $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit claiming that the project was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.
Continued Intimidation
Since they began to actively protest the redevelopment, local opponents assert they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – involving communications, direct threats and insinuations that opposing the project was tantamount to speaking against the country – by people they allege are associated with the developer.
Among those suspected of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c
