Threats, Anxiety and Aspiration as Mumbai Slum Dwellers Confront Redevelopment

Across several weeks, intimidating phone calls persisted. Initially, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a expensive project where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces razed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is like nowhere else in the world," says Shaikh. "However the plan aims to eradicate our community and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of this community stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Dwellings are assembled randomly and often missing basic amenities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and residences with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision come true.

"There's no proper healthcare, paved pathways or water management and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," explains a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The only way is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

However, some, like this protester, are fighting against the project.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. However they are concerned that this initiative – lacking resident participation – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since generations ago.

This involved these excluded, displaced people who developed the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is worth between $1m and a substantial sum per year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately a million residents living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer zone, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the project, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Others will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the remote edges of the metropolis, risking break up a generations-old neighborhood. A portion will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to continue living in Dharavi will be given units in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the organic, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has maintained this area for generations.

Industries from tailoring to clay work and waste processing are projected to decrease in quantity and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" far from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a leather artisan and long-time resident to live in Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor operation makes apparel – sharp blazers, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Household members lives in the accommodations underneath and his workers and sewers – laborers from north India – also sleep there, allowing him to manage costs. Away from this community, Mumbai rents are frequently tenfold costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

In the official facilities close by, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan depicts an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed people gather on cycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing continental baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a terrace near a coffee shop and dessert parlor. It is a world away from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that sustains local residents.

"This is not development for us," says the protester. "It represents an enormous property transaction that will price people out for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the business conglomerate. Headed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has been subject to claims of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Although the state government calls it a partnership, the corporation contributed a significant amount for its 80% stake. A case alleging that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to publicly resist the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – comprising messages, clear intimidation and suggestions that criticizing the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they assert are associated with the developer.

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