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For months, coercive messages continued. Originally, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. In the end, one resident states he was summoned to the local precinct and told clearly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is among those fighting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be razed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is unparalleled in the planet," states Shaikh. "Yet the plan aims to eradicate our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of this community present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the area. Homes are built haphazardly and frequently without proper sanitation, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and residences with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, roads or sewage systems and there's nowhere for children to play," says A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who moved from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The single option is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

But others, like Shaikh, are opposing the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need economic input and modernization. However they fear that this initiative – absent of community input – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, forcing out the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since generations ago.

This involved these shunned, displaced people who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and business activity, whose economic value is worth between one million dollars and two million dollars a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly one million residents living in the crowded sprawling neighborhood, a minority will be able for replacement housing in the development, which is expected to take a significant period to complete. Others will be transferred to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the remote edges of the city, threatening to fragment a long-established community. Some will not get housing at all.

People eligible to continue living in the area will be given units in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, shared lifestyle of living and working that has sustained this area for so long.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to decrease in quantity and be relocated to a designated "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For residents like Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time of his family to call home Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His rickety, multi-level facility produces apparel – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – distributed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

His family dwells in the rooms below and his workers and garment workers – laborers from north India – live there, allowing him to sustain operations. Away from the slum, Mumbai rents are typically significantly more expensive for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the official facilities in the vicinity, a visual representation of the transformation initiative shows an alternative perspective. Well-groomed inhabitants mill about on cycles and electric vehicles, buying continental baguettes and croissants and enlisting beverages on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that supports Dharavi's community.

"This is not improvement for our community," says the artisan. "It's an enormous land development that will price people out for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and an associate of the national leader – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a collaborative effort, the corporation invested $950m for its 80% stake. A case stating that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the development, local opponents state they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving messages, clear intimidation and implications that speaking against the development was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they assert work for the business conglomerate.

Among those alleged to have making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c