Maharashtra Elections 2024: Candidates butt heads over Dharavi redevelopment; residents seek clarity

Dr Jyoti Eknath Gaikwad canvassing for votes in Dharavi; (right) Rajesh Shivdas Khandare, Shiv Sena candidate, on campaign trail

Once labelled Asia's largest slum, Dharavi has seen a vertical split since the Maharashtra government's Dharavi Redevelopment Project began here a few years ago. Many residing in this hub of small-scale businesses, self-sustaining manufacturers and skilled and unskilled labourers are insecure and fearful about losing their homes while the prospect of growth is a cause for hope in others.

In 2022, as a part of the Dharavi cluster redevelopment project, the Gautam Adani-led Adani Realty won a tender worth R20,000 crore to transform 259 hectares of land into a "world-class township" and formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV), the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd (DRPPL), in an agreement with the existent Maharashtra government body, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Authority, under the state's Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA).

As the project began, one of the main contentions was that houses/structures that came up after the year 2000 were not eligible. Another was that of losing the ecosystem; many others felt it would uproot them while the few eligible for new homes in Dharavi itself were cheerful about it. The growing confusion has given politicians ammunition. This split is now being exploited by social and political activists to their benefit with Dharavi becoming a citywide burning issue.

The main contenders of the Dharavi constituency are Congress's Dr Jyoti Eknath Gaikwad, sister of Mumbai North Central MP Varsha Gaikwad and Shinde Sena's social worker and activist Rajesh Shivdas Khandare. While Gaikwad has been harshly criticising the Dharavi Redevelopment Project and elaborating on how the land has been sold to a businessman, Khandare has been targeting the Congress candidate, criticising "dynasty politics" while mentioning her late father and sister's political careers. He claimed it was the Gaikwad family that first proposed the Dharavi redevelopment issue 25 years ago and never took it ahead. In the Dharavi constituency, Congress's Varsha Gaikwad served as MLA for four consecutive terms from 2004 to 2019. Now that she has moved to the Lok Sabha, her sister, an ayurvedic doctor and head of the anatomy department of Sion Ayurved Mahavidyalaya, as per her official social media account, is being fielded in her place. Khandare has questioned Dr Jyoti's absence in Dharavi during the pandemic when she was required the most.

Residents, in turn, clouded by the onslaught of relentless campaigns, have no clarity on the issue.

600
Area of Dharavi in acres

Dr Jyoti Eknath Gaikwad, Congress

What will remain your main focus on the issues plaguing Dharavi?
The government has a wicked plan to hand over land to a builder in the name of redevelopment. The plan is about Dharavi Vinaash, not Dharavi Vikas. My main focus will remain to protect the people of Dharavi from this so-called redevelopment project.

But Dharavi residents have been living in pathetic conditions...
We are not against Dharavi redevelopment; it is the way that it is being implemented that is questionable. Huge plots in areas like Kurla, Mulund and Bhandup in no-development zones like salt pan land and dumping ground are being handed over to the builder. It is about the redevelopment of the builder, not Dharavi residents. The redevelopment of Dharavi should be done by keeping the people here sector-wise and not by destroying the entire ecosystem.

What about the state of roads, pedestrian footpaths, last-mile connectivity and other public Infrastructure?
Dharavi has been suffering due to poor infrastructure. We have been working in the area and most of the problems of poor civic maintenance that we find due to the absence of BMC. We try to help, but that is only till a limit. The election of a full-time corporator for the area is most important.

Water supply is a growing issue for Mumbai...
The water issue is grave and in Dharavi, there is no regular supply. There are major problems like contamination issues, too, which need to be addressed. There is a need to lay dedicated pipelines and improve and upgrade the old, existing ones. When elected, I will take up the water issue.

What about high air pollution levels and a general lack of green spaces?
The government is out to finish the delicate balance of nature. They have allocated salt pan land for rehabilitating people affected by redevelopment. There will be environmental disaster and doom if salt pan land is filled with people. We need to stop all such attempts and save the city from such a devastating plan.

Rajesh Shivdas Khandare, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde)

What is your take on the redevelopment of Dharavi?
The Dharavi redevelopment project was first mooted by the Gaikwad family about 25 years ago. All these years, they were in power, and the project just remained on paper. Ask them why they remained silent. A family of outsiders [non-residents of Dharavi] has been ruling here and what stopped them from redeveloping it? Now that the development has started, it has made them insecure.

What about the sorry state of Dharavi's public infrastructure?
Dharavi is a living hell. I was born and brought up here and lived in an 8x8-sq-ft room. I know life here. There are no roads, no infrastructure and no life. Who has been getting elected here? Only people from a single family. Ask them what they have done in so many years. The Shinde government has built a Coastal Road, sea link and even a Metro station in Dharavi. The growth has been unprecedented. The Opposition is saying there are ineligible residents. When they themselves had done a survey of people staying here in 2002, they had given a figure of 61,000 residents. Now there are 1.5 lakh. How has the number gone up, who is responsible? It is because of them, who turned a blind eye to encroachers and allowed anyone to build anywhere in Dharavi.

What about the area's water supply issues?
Dharavi residents drink recycled water. The issue is not just about water but the overall influx and growing population.

And pollution?
Dharavi is the hotbed of pollution and people here are mostly workers. We have a candidate who is a doctor. Where was she when we Dharavikars needed her the most during the lockdown and pandemic? That time, a doctor would have helped us in a big way and given relief. No one was seen at that time.