Threats, Anxiety and Optimism as Mumbai Slum Dwellers Face the Bulldozers

For months, coercive communications recurred. Originally, supposedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, and then from the authorities. In the end, one resident claims he was ordered to the police station and told clearly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is one of many opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be bulldozed and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is like nowhere else in the world," says Shaikh. "But their intention is to dismantle our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of this community stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the settlement. Dwellings are assembled randomly and often missing basic amenities, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the environment is permeated by the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, contemporary malls and apartments with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or sewage systems and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," explains a tea vendor, fifty-six, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The only way is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, such as Shaikh, are resisting the project.

None deny that this community, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this plan – lacking community input – could potentially convert premium city property into a playground for the rich, evicting the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have resided there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who built up the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of community resilience and business activity, whose economic value is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum per year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately 1 million people living in the crowded 220-hectare zone, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the project, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. Additional residents will be transferred to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the far outskirts of the city, potentially break up a long-established community. Some will not get residences at all.

People eligible to stay in Dharavi will be provided apartments in high-rise buildings, a major break from the natural, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are likely to shrink in number and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like Shaikh, a workshop owner and multi-generational resident to live in Dharavi, the project presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey facility makes garments – tailored coats, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and abroad.

His family dwells in the accommodations downstairs and his workers and sewers – workers from north India – also sleep on-site, permitting him to sustain operations. Outside this community, housing costs are typically tenfold costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the official facilities nearby, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan depicts a very different outlook. Well-groomed people gather on cycles and e-vehicles, buying international baked goods and pastries and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This depicts a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that maintains the neighborhood.

"This isn't development for our community," states the protester. "It's a massive land development that will price people out for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's concern of the corporate group. Managed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the business group has encountered allegations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Although the state government describes it as a partnership, the developer invested $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit claiming that the project was questionably assigned to the business group is under review in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to actively protest the development, local opponents claim they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – comprising phone calls, explicit warnings and implications that speaking against the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they claim represent the corporate group.

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