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Over an extended period, threatening phone calls persisted. Initially, supposedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, and then from the authorities. Ultimately, a local artisan asserts he was called to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is one of many resisting a multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of this area is unparalleled in the world," says the protester. "But they want to eradicate our social fabric and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and elite residences that dominate the area. Residences are built haphazardly and frequently without proper sanitation, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is permeated by the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

For certain residents, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and residences with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," says a tea vendor, 56, who migrated from southern India in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

However, some, including this protester, are opposing the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this plan – without public consultation – might convert premium city property into an elite enclave, forcing out the lower-caste, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these marginalized, relocated individuals who built up the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and business activity, whose production is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum annually, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately a million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, a minority will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the remote edges of the metropolis, threatening to fragment a generations-old community. A portion will be denied homes at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be given flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the natural, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained Dharavi for generations.

Businesses from clothing production to pottery and recycling are likely to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "industrial sector" far from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as the leather artisan, a leather artisan and third generation of his family to reside in the slum, the project presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-floor operation produces garments – tailored coats, luxury coats, decorated jackets – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and abroad.

Relatives dwells in the rooms below and employees and garment workers – workers from north India – live on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Outside this community, accommodation prices are often 10 times more expensive for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the government offices nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative illustrates a very different vision for the future. Fashionable residents gather on bicycles and e-vehicles, acquiring international baked goods and pastries and socializing on a patio adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. It is a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This is not progress for us," explains the artisan. "This constitutes a huge property transaction that will price people out for us to survive."

There is also distrust of the business conglomerate. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the business group has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

While local authorities labels it a partnership, the corporation contributed nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the developer is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the project, local opponents assert they have been experienced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including communications, explicit warnings and suggestions that criticizing the initiative was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by people they allege work for the business conglomerate.

Among those accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c