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For months, coercive phone calls continued. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is one of many fighting a multimillion-dollar initiative where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of Dharavi is exceptional in the world," says the protester. "However their intention is to destroy our community and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that dominate the area. Residences are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of open sewers.

For certain residents, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, neat parks, contemporary malls and residences with two toilets is a hopeful vision achieved.

"There's no proper healthcare, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for children to play," states A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who migrated from southern India in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

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

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, long neglected as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. But they are concerned that this plan – lacking community input – might turn valuable urban land into an elite enclave, evicting the marginalized, migrant communities who have lived there since generations ago.

It was these shunned, relocated individuals who built up the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and business activity, whose economic value is valued at between one million dollars and two million dollars a year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the crowded 220-hectare zone, a minority will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the project, which is estimated to take seven years to complete. The remainder will be transferred to wastelands and salt plains on the distant periphery of the metropolis, risking break up a historic neighborhood. Certain individuals will receive no homes at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the area will be given apartments in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has sustained Dharavi for many years.

Commercial activities from clothing production to pottery and recycling are projected to shrink in number and be transferred to a specific "commercial zone" far from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as the leather artisan, a craftsman and third generation of his family to call home the slum, the project presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-storey operation produces apparel – formal jackets, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Household members lives in the rooms downstairs and employees and tailors – workers from different regions – also sleep on-site, permitting him to afford their labour. Outside this community, accommodation prices are often 10 times more expensive for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices in the vicinity, a visual representation of the transformation initiative depicts a contrasting vision for the future. Well-groomed residents gather on cycles and e-vehicles, purchasing international baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on a terrace near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that supports Dharavi's community.

"This isn't progress for our community," says Shaikh. "It represents a massive land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Run by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the national leader – the corporation has faced accusations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Even as local authorities calls it a collaborative effort, the business group invested $950m for its majority share. Legal proceedings claiming that the project was unfairly awarded to the business group is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to actively protest the project, local opponents assert they have been experienced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – involving phone calls, direct threats and implications that speaking against the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by figures they assert work for the business conglomerate.

Part of the group suspected of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c