Threats, Apprehension and Aspiration as Mumbai Residents Await Demolition

Over an extended period, intimidating communications continued. Initially, reportedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the authorities. Finally, one resident claims he was ordered to the local precinct and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is among those resisting a multimillion-dollar initiative where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be bulldozed and modernized by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is unparalleled in the world," explains the protester. "Yet their intention is to destroy our way of life and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Dwellings are assembled randomly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the air is filled with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and residences with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision come true.

"We don't have proper healthcare, paved pathways or sewage systems and we have no places for kids to enjoy," states a chai seller, fifty-six, who moved from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, like this protester, are resisting the project.

None deny that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. But they worry that this plan – absent of resident participation – is one that will turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, displacing the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have been there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these excluded, migrant workers who developed the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is estimated at between a significant amount and two million dollars per year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly one million people living in the dense sprawling area, less than 50% will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to wastelands and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, potentially fragment a generations-old neighborhood. A portion will be denied housing at all.

People eligible to remain in Dharavi will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, communal way of residing and operating that has supported this area for many years.

Industries from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to an allocated "industrial sector" separated from homes.

Existential Threat

For residents like Shaikh, a craftsman and long-time of his family to call home this community, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, multi-level workshop makes leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives resides in the accommodations below and his workers and tailors – migrants from north India – reside on-site, permitting him to manage costs. Outside Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are frequently tenfold costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings close by, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project illustrates a very different outlook. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on cycles and e-vehicles, acquiring international baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on a patio outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that supports Dharavi's community.

"This is not improvement for our community," says the artisan. "This constitutes a huge land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also distrust of the business conglomerate. Managed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a close ally of the government head – the corporation has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a collaborative effort, the developer contributed $950m for its majority share. A case alleging that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to publicly resist the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – comprising messages, clear intimidation and suggestions that speaking against the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by people they claim are associated with the business conglomerate.

Part of the group alleged to have issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c