Threats, Anxiety and Hope as Mumbai Slum Dwellers Face Demolition

For months, coercive phone calls persisted. At first, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, and then from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan claims he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is one of many opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the world," says the protester. "However their intention is to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that overshadow the neighborhood. Residences are assembled randomly and often missing basic amenities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have proper healthcare, roads or drainage and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," says a chai seller, fifty-six, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The only way is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

However, some, such as Shaikh, are resisting the project.

None deny that the slum, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they worry that this project – absent of community input – is one that will turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the marginalized, migrant communities who have been there since generations ago.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who established the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of community resilience and business activity, whose output is estimated at between a significant amount and two million dollars annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly 1 million inhabitants living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer zone, a minority will be qualified for new homes in the redevelopment, which is projected to take seven years to finish. Additional residents will be transferred to barren areas and salt plains on the distant periphery of the city, risking fragment a historic neighborhood. Certain individuals will be denied homes at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in Dharavi will be given apartments in tower blocks, a substantial change from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has supported this area for generations.

Businesses from tailoring to clay work and recycling are projected to shrink in number and be moved to a specific "business area" distant from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a craftsman and multi-generational of his family to live in the slum, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey facility makes garments – formal jackets, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – marketed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Household members resides in the accommodations below and laborers and garment workers – laborers from other states – reside on-site, permitting him to sustain operations. Beyond this community, accommodation prices are often tenfold as high for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the government offices in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan depicts a very different outlook. Well-groomed residents gather on cycles and electric vehicles, buying western-style baked goods and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on a terrace outside a restaurant and dessert parlor. This depicts a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't development for residents," explains Shaikh. "It's an enormous property transaction that will price people out for us to survive."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Headed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has encountered allegations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Although the state government labels it a joint project, the developer paid a significant amount for its controlling interest. A lawsuit claiming that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is under review in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to vocally oppose the project, protesters and community members state they have been faced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – including communications, direct threats and implications that opposing the project was tantamount to speaking against the country – by individuals they claim represent the business conglomerate.

Among those accused of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c