Pressure, Anxiety and Optimism as Mumbai Inhabitants Await the Bulldozers

Across several weeks, coercive communications continued. Originally, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the police themselves. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to the local precinct and told clearly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is part of a group resisting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces bulldozed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is exceptional in the globe," states the resident. "Yet they want to dismantle our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that overshadow the settlement. Residences are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the air is saturated with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and apartments with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future achieved.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for children to play," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who relocated from his home state in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, such as this protester, are resisting the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. However they fear that this project – lacking community input – could potentially turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, evicting the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

It was these excluded, displaced people who built up the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose economic value is estimated at between a significant amount and a substantial sum a year, making it a major informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about 1 million people living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the development, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to complete. Others will be relocated to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, potentially break up a long-established community. A portion will receive no homes at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the neighborhood will be allocated units in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the natural, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for generations.

Commercial activities from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to a designated "industrial sector" distant from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of Shaikh, a workshop owner and third generation of his family to call home this community, the plan presents an existential threat. His informal, three-floor workshop produces apparel – tailored coats, luxury coats, fashionable garments – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

His family resides in the accommodations underneath and his workers and garment workers – workers from different regions – also sleep on-site, permitting him to manage costs. Outside Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are typically significantly costlier for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

In the official facilities nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative shows a contrasting outlook. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, acquiring continental baguettes and croissants and socializing on an outdoor area outside a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. It is a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that maintains the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for us," states Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the business conglomerate. Run by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it denies.

While local authorities calls it a partnership, the business group invested $950m for its majority share. A case stating that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the business group is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to vocally oppose the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, direct threats and insinuations that opposing the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by individuals they claim work for the developer.

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