Intimidation, Fear and Hope as Mumbai Residents Face the Bulldozers

Across several weeks, intimidating messages recurred. Originally, supposedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, subsequently from the police themselves. Finally, a local artisan claims he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is one of many resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and modernized by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is like nowhere else in the globe," states Shaikh. "But their intention is to dismantle our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Dwellings are constructed informally and typically lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is filled with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and homes with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision come true.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or water management and we have no places for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from his home state in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

But others, like the leather artisan, are resisting the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is desperately requiring investment and development. Yet they worry that this initiative – absent of community input – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, displacing the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since the nineteenth century.

These were these excluded, displaced people who established the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is estimated at between $1m and a substantial sum per year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly one million inhabitants living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer area, fewer than half will be able for alternative accommodation in the project, which is estimated to take a significant period to finish. The remainder will be transferred to wastelands and saline fields on the remote edges of the city, risking break up a generations-old social network. Some will not get residences at all.

People eligible to remain in the neighborhood will be given units in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the organic, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for generations.

Industries from clothing production to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to reduce in scale and be transferred to an allocated "industrial sector" separated from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like Shaikh, a leather artisan and long-time inhabitant to live in Dharavi, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-floor facility produces apparel – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

His family lives in the spaces below and employees and sewers – laborers from north India – reside on-site, permitting him to sustain operations. Beyond the slum, Mumbai rents are often 10 times as high for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

In the government offices nearby, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project illustrates a contrasting perspective. Fashionable people mill about on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, buying continental baked goods and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area outside a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not development for our community," explains the artisan. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will price people out for residents to remain."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a close ally of the national leader – the business group has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it denies.

While administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the corporation contributed $950m for its 80% stake. A case claiming that the project was improperly granted to the developer is being considered in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members assert they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including communications, explicit warnings and suggestions that speaking against the project was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they assert are associated with the corporate group.

Included in these alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c