Pressure, Anxiety and Aspiration as Mumbai Inhabitants Face Redevelopment
Over an extended period, coercive phone calls continued. At first, reportedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, later from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.
Shaikh is among those opposing a high-value initiative where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.
"The culture of Dharavi is exceptional in the globe," states the protester. "But the plan aims to eradicate our way of life and prevent our protests."
Contrasting Realities
The cramped lanes of this community stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and elite residences that loom over the area. Residences are constructed informally and typically missing basic amenities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.
For certain residents, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future achieved.
"There's no sufficient health services, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," explains A Selvin Nadar, 56, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and provide modern residences."
Local Protest
Yet certain residents, including Shaikh, are fighting against the project.
None deny that Dharavi, long neglected as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. But they worry that this project – absent of public consultation – could potentially turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since generations ago.
This involved these excluded, relocated individuals who developed the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between a significant amount and $2m a year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.
Displacement Concerns
Among approximately a million people living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer zone, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is projected to take seven years to accomplish. The remainder will be relocated to wastelands and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a generations-old community. Certain individuals will be denied residences at all.
People eligible to continue living in the area will be allocated units in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained Dharavi for so long.
Commercial activities from clothing production to clay work and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be moved to a specific "business area" far from homes.
Livelihood Crisis
For those such as the leather artisan, a craftsman and third generation inhabitant to reside in Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey operation produces leather coats – tailored coats, suede trenches, decorated jackets – marketed in premium stores in south Mumbai and overseas.
Household members resides in the accommodations underneath and his workers and tailors – laborers from north India – live on-site, allowing him to afford their labour. Away from this community, Mumbai rents are typically significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.
Harassment and Intimidation
At the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project illustrates a contrasting outlook. Slickly dressed residents mill about on cycles and electric vehicles, buying international baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on a patio adjacent to a coffee shop and treat station. This depicts a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains local residents.
"This represents no improvement for our community," explains the artisan. "This constitutes a massive real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."
Additionally, there exists concern of the business conglomerate. Run by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it rejects.
Although local authorities calls it a collaborative effort, the developer contributed nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A lawsuit stating that the initiative was improperly granted to the developer is being considered in India's supreme court.
Sustained Harassment
After they started to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been experienced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they claim work for the developer.
Among those alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c
