Threats, Fear and Optimism as Mumbai Inhabitants Await Redevelopment
For months, threatening messages recurred. At first, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. Finally, one resident asserts he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.
The leather artisan is among those fighting a multimillion-dollar initiative where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces demolished and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.
"The unique ecosystem of the slum is unparalleled in the planet," says the resident. "Yet they want to eradicate our way of life and stop us speaking out."
Dual Worlds
The cramped lanes of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the area. Residences are constructed informally and often lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.
To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.
"There's no sufficient health services, proper streets or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," states a chai seller, 56, who moved from his home state in that period. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."
Resident Opposition
However, some, such as Shaikh, are opposing the redevelopment.
All recognize that this community, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing investment and development. But they worry that this initiative – lacking resident participation – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, displacing the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have been there since the late 1800s.
It was these marginalized, displaced people who developed the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and business activity, whose output is estimated at between $1m and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.
Displacement Concerns
Among approximately a million people living in the dense 220-hectare area, a minority will be able for new homes in the development, which is expected to take seven years to accomplish. Others will be moved to wastelands and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially break up a generations-old neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get homes at all.
People eligible to stay in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the natural, collective approach of living and working that has supported the community for many years.
Businesses from tailoring to clay work and recycling are projected to reduce in scale and be relocated to an allocated "industrial sector" far from residential areas.
Survival Challenge
For those such as Shaikh, a craftsman and third generation of his family to live in this community, the plan presents a survival challenge. His rickety, multi-level operation produces leather coats – formal jackets, luxury coats, fashionable garments – distributed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and abroad.
Relatives resides in the rooms below and his workers and garment workers – workers from other states – live in the same building, allowing him to manage costs. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are typically significantly more expensive for a single room.
Threats and Warning
Within the administrative buildings close by, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan depicts a contrasting outlook. Well-groomed people gather on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, buying continental bread and breakfast items and having coffee on a patio outside a restaurant and treat station. This depicts a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains Dharavi's community.
"This is not progress for us," states the artisan. "This constitutes an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."
Furthermore, there's skepticism of the development company. Headed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.
Although administrative bodies calls it a partnership, the corporation invested a significant amount for its majority share. A case claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the business group is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.
Ongoing Pressure
From when they initiated to publicly resist the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – comprising messages, direct threats and suggestions that criticizing the development was equivalent to opposing national interests – by individuals they claim represent the business conglomerate.
Included in these suspected of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c
