Threats, Fear and Hope as Mumbai Inhabitants Confront Demolition
Over an extended period, threatening messages recurred. Initially, reportedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, subsequently from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.
The leather artisan is part of a group opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – will be bulldozed and redeveloped by a large business group.
"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the planet," explains the protester. "But their intention is to dismantle our social fabric and silence our voices."
Dual Worlds
The cramped lanes of the slum present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and elite residences that overshadow the area. Dwellings are assembled randomly and typically without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the environment is filled with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.
To some, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and apartments with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.
"We don't have sufficient health services, roads or drainage and there's nowhere for children to play," states a tea vendor, in his fifties, who migrated from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."
Resident Opposition
But others, like the leather artisan, are opposing the redevelopment.
None deny that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. However they fear that this plan – without resident participation – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, displacing the marginalized, working-class residents who have lived there since the late 1800s.
This involved these marginalized, relocated individuals who built up the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and commercial output, whose production is estimated at between a significant amount and $2m a year, making it a major informal economies.
Displacement Concerns
Out of about one million people living in the crowded 220-hectare area, a minority will be eligible for replacement housing in the project, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to finish. The remainder will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, risking break up a generations-old community. Certain individuals will be denied residences at all.
Residents permitted to continue living in the area will be provided units in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has maintained this area for many years.
Industries from tailoring to ceramic crafts and waste processing are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a specific "industrial sector" far from homes.
Livelihood Crisis
For those such as the leather artisan, a workshop owner and multi-generational inhabitant to live in this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, multi-level operation creates leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – marketed in premium stores in south Mumbai and overseas.
His family lives in the accommodations downstairs and employees and sewers – laborers from different regions – live there, permitting him to sustain operations. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are typically 10 times costlier for minimal space.
Pressure and Coercion
At the government offices in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project depicts an alternative perspective. Well-groomed inhabitants gather on bicycles and e-vehicles, purchasing western-style baked goods and pastries and enlisting beverages on a patio outside Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This depicts a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains the neighborhood.
"This isn't development for our community," says the artisan. "It's an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for us to survive."
Additionally, there exists distrust of the corporate group. Headed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the national leader – the corporation has faced accusations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.
Although the state government labels it a partnership, the business group paid $950m for its majority share. A case stating that the initiative was improperly granted to the developer is being considered in the top court.
Ongoing Pressure
From when they initiated to vocally oppose the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been experienced a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and implications that criticizing the project was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they assert are associated with the corporate group.
Included in these accused of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c
