Maharashtra Diary: ‘We will not give up our Dharavi’

With Asia’s richest man having won the $619 million bid to redevelop Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi is grabbing eyeballs again. In the midst of a sea of posters and flexes saying ‘Adani Hatao, Dharavi Bachao’ (remove Adani, save Dharavi), public meetings are giving the movement a new momentum.

A video featuring Mumbai Congress President and MP Varsha Gaikwad addressing residents on 25 August went viral on social media handles and Instagram. The people chanting ‘Apni Dharavi nahin denge, nahin denge’ seemed united in their resolve not to surrender. While land acquisition issues persist, the impending assembly election, polling dates for which are yet to be announced, may have something to do with the renewed protests.

A recent Reuters report highlighted that only those who have proof of residence in Dharavi prior to the year 2000 are eligible for free homes in the redevelopment. That number is estimated to be around 300,000. The estimated 700,000 residents who are deemed ineligible are apparently going to be relocated elsewhere. The question is, where?

Baburao Mane, former MLA and Dharavi resident, had earlier pointed out another issue. Only about 50,000 residents, 5 per cent of Dharavi’s population, hold valid papers. So how would eligibility be established? Residents also find the logic of building a ‘world class city’ of skyscrapers with no room for 70 per cent of the original inhabitants absurd and unjust. 

“All the houses in Dharavi have two or three floors … I have 15 family members who stay (in the same building),” Neeta Jadhav, a resident for 26 years was quoted in a CNN report in June this year. “If we are all put in one small apartment there will be a lot of conflict, so the developer should consider giving us a bigger space,” she said.

“In Mumbai, getting land is the toughest of things. Physically not a single inch of land has come to us,” said S.V.R. Srinivas, CEO of the Adani Group-led Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd (DRPPL). Residents of Dharavi contest the claim. They believe the BJP government has handed over precious parcels of land to the Adani Group to make a killing under the guise of ‘redevelopment’.

Important questions were raised by Gaikwad. Dharavi occupies approximately 600 acres, but Gautam Adani is being given 1,500 acres of land. What kind of shady deal is that? How could 700,000 people be displaced without completing surveys and without sharing any blueprint of the plan? Naturally people were agitated. If it meant taking to the streets to save this thriving ecosystem at the heart of Mumbai from the corrupt BJP government and its cronies, that’s exactly what they would do.

Former chief minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray said this wasn’t a Dharavi Redevelopment Project—it was a ‘Laadla Mitra Yojana’. If the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) forms the government after the assembly elections, he promised the tender would be cancelled.

The Dharavi Bachao Andolan calls it out as a land scam. The Adani Group is simply trying to acquire land in Mumbai in the name of rehabilitation. The government has already handed over 45 acres of land that belongs to the Railways and 21 acres of the government-owned Kurla Dairy.

In January 2024, the housing department of the state government directed the urban development department to transfer ​​64 acres of land in Mulund to the project. In February, the state cabinet approved a proposal to hand over 283.4 acres of salt-pan land in Kanjurmarg, Bhandup and Wadala. The Adani Group has also set its sights on acquiring 820 acres of land in Deonar.

None of this is transparent to the people of Dharavi. Gaikwad and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Anil Desai along with Dharavi residents, met Srinivas to demand the ongoing survey to determine eligibility of residents for rehabilitation be stopped. And while this has been done, the residents remain restive.

The long shadow of Badlapur

The sexual assault of two kindergarten students by a contractual employee in a school in Badlapur has cast a cloud on the euphoria in ruling party circles over the Laadli Behna scheme. Chief minister Eknath Shinde branded the public protests and outrage as politically motivated and sponsored by the opposition. 

Preliminary findings, however, have found the fault lies with the school management. While the guardians of the assaulted children claim to have informed the school on 14 August, the administration ignored the complaint and thereafter falsely asserted they learnt of the assault on 16 August.

Allegations that several school trustees are associated with the BJP and the state government’s admission that CCTV footage for a fortnight was missing have added to the outrage. Female attendants at the school have refused to appear before the inquiry committee.

The contractual employee has been arrested and sent to judicial custody, but the incident has provided enough fodder to the opposition’s claim that the state government handles politically-connected schools with kid gloves.

The opposition also pointed out that the MVA government had unanimously passed the Shakti Criminal Laws (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill in 2020 to ensure time-bound prosecution and trial of cases of sexual harassment. The ‘Shakti Bill’ was sent to the President in 2021, but presidential assent is yet to come.

Pawar’s staying power

The image of an 83-year-old man sitting stoically in the pouring rain to protest the sexual abuse of children has electrified the electoral base. Ailing as he is, Sharad Pawar could easily have given the opposition’s silent protest—after the Mumbai High Court squashed its call for a state-wide bandh—a miss.

This is not the first time Maharashtra has seen Sharad Pawar braving the rains during the election campaigns. In 2019, Pawar addressing rallies in the rain was a sight that stirred his supporters. When the NCP won 13 more seats in the assembly than they had in 2014, he was credited for the improved tally.  

In the general election earlier this year, his party contested in 10 Lok Sabha constituencies and won eight of them. This despite the ECI taking away the party’s official election symbol and giving it to the breakaway faction led by his nephew Ajit Pawar. In Baramati, Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra lost to Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule. Most analysts vouch for his power to pack a winning punch in the upcoming assembly elections.

Meanwhile, the Z category security accorded to Pawar recently has evoked mixed reactions. The government justified the move by citing enhanced threat perception in view of renewed unrest over the Maratha reservation issue. Some of his supporters see it as a recognition of his status as the most prominent MVA leader in the state. Pawar himself does not think much of it, having publicly said that enhanced security was probably just a means to keep him under constant surveillance.

Modi’s day out with ‘Lakhpati Didis’

On 25 August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Maharashtra when families were mourning the death of 25 people from Jalgaon who had died in a road accident in Nepal. He also visited Thane, chief minister Eknath Shinde’s home ground. The state was still simmering with rage over the sexual assault of two kindergartners in Badlapur.

Did Modi do more than make a formal expression of condolence? No. He was more interested in making mileage out of his interactions with Maharashtra’s one lakh ‘Lakhpati Didis’ and mouthing platitudes about the BJP government being “fully committed to making the lives of mothers and sisters easier.” Take that with a sea of salt.