Over an extended period, coercive phone calls continued. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the authorities. Ultimately, a local artisan claims he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.
The leather artisan is one of many fighting a expensive initiative where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be bulldozed and transformed by a large business group.
"The unique ecosystem of this area is exceptional in the planet," states the protester. "Yet the plan aims to eradicate our social fabric and prevent our protests."
The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that overshadow the neighborhood. Residences are constructed informally and frequently without proper sanitation, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.
Among some individuals, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream realized.
"There's no proper healthcare, proper streets or drainage and we have no places for kids to enjoy," explains a tea vendor, in his fifties, who migrated from southern India in that period. "The single option is to demolish everything and build us new homes."
However, some, like this protester, are opposing the redevelopment.
All recognize that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. However they fear that this plan – without public consultation – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, evicting the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have resided there since generations ago.
It was these excluded, displaced people who established the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and commercial output, whose economic value is worth between a significant amount and $2m per year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.
Among approximately a million residents living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, less than 50% will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is expected to take a significant period to finish. Others will be transferred to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the distant periphery of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a generations-old neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get housing at all.
Residents permitted to remain in Dharavi will be provided flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the natural, communal way of residing and operating that has sustained this area for so long.
Businesses from tailoring to pottery and material recovery are projected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a specific "industrial sector" far from homes.
In the case of the leather artisan, a leather artisan and long-time of his family to call home this community, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, multi-level workshop creates leather coats – tailored coats, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.
Household members lives in the accommodations below and employees and garment workers – workers from other states – also sleep on-site, allowing him to sustain operations. Away from the slum, housing costs are frequently 10 times as high for basic accommodation.
At the administrative buildings nearby, a visual representation of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative vision for the future. Fashionable people gather on cycles and e-vehicles, purchasing continental baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on a terrace adjacent to a coffee shop and treat station. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that maintains local residents.
"This is not development for residents," says the artisan. "It's a huge property transaction that will render it impossible for us to survive."
There is also concern of the corporate group. Managed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the business group has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it denies.
While local authorities calls it a collaborative effort, the business group paid a significant amount for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings stating that the initiative was improperly granted to the developer is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.
After they started to actively protest the project, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – comprising messages, direct threats and suggestions that criticizing the development was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they claim work for the developer.
Part of the group alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c
