Dharavi Uprising: 100-Year-Old Kumbharwada Potters Protest Against Adani’s Redevelopment Survey — 500+ Families Fear Eviction
Massive protest erupts in Dharavi as over 500 potter families from 100-year-old Kumbharwada oppose Adani Group’s redevelopment survey. Artisans demand heritage protection and legal clarity
Kumbharwada, Asia’s largest settlement of traditional potters which has been a part of the Dharavi slum area for at least a hundred years, saw a tense situation on Thursday morning when the potter community blocked the survey team from the Gautam Adani Group-led Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP). The police intervened and took the protestors to the police station to let the door-to-door surveyors carry out their work. This is the first time that a DRP survey is being undertaken at Kumbharwada although the overall survey of Dharavi began in March last year.
At around 10 am, when the survey team reached the 90-feet Road in Dharavi adjacent to Kumbharwada, potters gathered around and blocked the narrow lane that leads to the ground-plus-two-floor homes with a brick kiln in the middle. “There are a handful of residents who have agreed to this survey for redevelopment,” said Adam G, a resident of Kumbharwada. However, the authorities are numbering even the tenements of those who have not agreed, which is unacceptable.”
The police personnel who had accompanied the surveyors from DRP and Navbharat Mega Developers Private Limited then took the protestors to the police station, warning them not to cause law-and-order problems. “Almost 40 to 50 people went to the police station at around 10.30 am, and we informed the police that the due process for a survey was not being followed,” said A Solanki, a third-generation potter from Kumbharwada. “The issue is there is no clear-cut plan on where we will be shifted and what will happen to our livelihood.”
After the protestors were led away, the survey resumed but was shut down by them by 1 pm after they returned from the police station. “The surveyors had begun numbering even the homes of those residents who have objected to the redevelopment,” said a local resident. “The homes which were locked were also numbered. That’s the reason we came together and asked them to leave. After they left, we defaced the numbers that had been painted in red on our doors.”
The Thursday protest was preceded by an incident a day earlier on July 23. This was the first day of the survey at Kumbharwada and reportedly the first ever in the potters’ colony. The potters, who have been opposing the ₹95,790-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project for months, gathered around when the surveyors landed up and started their work, but there was no full-fledged protest.
Kumbharwada is spread across 12 to 13 acres and divided into five parts. There are narrow lanes separating the homes, kilns and drying areas where artisans customise the designs of earthen pots and other clay articles. The pots made here are even exported to the US, UK, the Middle East and African countries.
While there is no confirmed date on when the colony was formed, it is by all accounts at least a hundred years old. Kumbharwada is among the last bastions in Dharavi holding up against the proposed redevelopment.
Spokespersons of DRP claimed that the survey had been initiated on the request of the potters and only a handful of “powerful” families were opposing the redevelopment. Kumbharwada has 3,500-odd families, of which, according to DRP and NMDPL sources, the houses of 250 have been numbered.
At present, surveys of over 100,001 tenements have been completed, of which the occupants of around 87,000 have submitted their documents, which are in the process of being checked. Dharavi has approximately 1,25,000 tenements, of which the occupants of 58,532 residential tenements are expected to be rehabilitated in situ.
The last official survey in Dharavi took place in 2008, when approximately 66,000 ground-floor structures were found eligible for free housing within the slum area. Back then too, Kumbharwada was reportedly not part of the survey.
