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For months, threatening phone calls persisted. Initially, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. In the end, a local artisan states 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 multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be bulldozed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is unparalleled in the globe," states the protester. "However the plan aims to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that overshadow the neighborhood. Homes are assembled randomly and frequently without proper sanitation, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the air is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with proper sanitation is an optimistic future realized.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or sewage systems and we have no places for kids to enjoy," explains A Selvin Nadar, 56, who moved from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The single option is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, including Shaikh, are fighting against the project.

None deny that the slum, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need investment and development. Yet they worry that this initiative – absent of resident participation – could potentially convert premium city property into a playground for the rich, forcing out the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since generations ago.

These were these excluded, displaced people who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose economic value is estimated at between a significant amount and two million dollars annually, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly one million residents living in the dense 220-hectare area, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be moved to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking divide a long-established social network. A portion will be denied residences at all.

People eligible to remain in Dharavi will be allocated units in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has maintained this area for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and material recovery are expected to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "business area" distant from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like Shaikh, a craftsman and long-time of his family to live in the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-storey operation makes apparel – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – distributed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the spaces underneath and his workers and tailors – laborers from other states – also sleep there, permitting him to sustain operations. Outside the slum, accommodation prices are often significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the official facilities nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative shows a very different perspective. Slickly dressed residents move around on cycles and eco-friendly transport, buying western-style baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a terrace adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that supports Dharavi's community.

"This represents no progress for our community," says the protester. "This constitutes an enormous property transaction that will price people out for residents to remain."

There is also distrust of the business conglomerate. Managed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the national leader – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of favoritism and questionable practices, which it denies.

Even as local authorities labels it a joint project, the business group paid $950m for its majority share. Legal proceedings claiming that the project was questionably assigned to the corporation is being considered in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to vocally oppose the project, protesters and community members claim they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – including phone calls, direct threats and implications that speaking against the initiative was equivalent to speaking against the country – by people they allege are associated with the corporate group.

Included in these accused of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c