Land, Electricity, 'Anti-Bengali Bias': The Many Crises at Delhi's Jai Hind Camp

Jai Hind Camp, a cluster of about 3,000 slums near Vasant Kunj, has not received electricity for over 12 days now.

Jai Hind Camp, a cluster of about 3,000 slums in Vasant Kunj, has not received electricity for 12 days now.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra)

As dusk falls, the cries of newborn twins—a girl and a boy, yet to be named and less than a week old—ring out in the squalid, muddy gully that leads to 20-year-old Ashiya Bibi's house in Jai Hind Camp, a cluster of about 3,000 jhuggi-jhopdis or slums in South Delhi's Masoodpur area.

Inside the house, an emaciated Ashiya, just back from the local government hospital, fans the two babies in the dark, swatting away mosquitoes from above their freshly powdered heads. Every time her hathpakha (hand fan) stops, they cry.

"I haven't slept since I came back home two days ago. There's no light and at night, the heat keeps the babies up," she tells The Quint, cramped inside her one-room shanty. It has been raining incessantly, making the whole room damp and humid.

"I'm worried they will catch a cold like this or a heat stroke if this continues for long," she adds.

Ashiya Bibi with her newborn twins inside her shanty in Jai Hind Camp.

(Photo: Rakhi Bose/The Quint)

For the past 12 days, the approximately 5,500-6,000 slum-dwellers of Jai Hind Camp, on the periphery of the posh Vasant Kunj neighbourhood, have been living without electricity.

Ashiya, a Bengali-speaking migrant from Uttar Pradesh, has other concerns as well.

"I hear they are asking us to move. I belong to UP but I've always lived here. This is the only home I know."

“It has been horrible,” Ashiya’s neighbour and mother of two, Mirina Bibi, from West Bengal's Cooch Behar, tells The Quint. Her sister-in-law, Manora Bibi, was towards the end of her third trimester when the power was cut off on 8 July.

“Without any fan or light, she started feeling sick as her labour was approaching. The family decided not to risk it here... who knows how long it will take for the power to come back on. We are not even able to charge our phones,” she says.

Manora only managed to reach Maldah via the Brahmaputra Express on 15 July when she went into labour. She had a miscarriage at a government hospital there.

“Had there been no power cut, Manora would have delivered here. Just because we are poor, we will have to live with this type of injustice. "

Mirina Bibi

Mirina Bibi says had there been no power cut, her sister-in-law's newborn would have survived.

(Photo: Rakhi Bose/The Quint)

A Legal Quagmire

The electricity was cut in accordance with a May 2024 order by a district court, directing power provider BSES to “remove illegal meters and wires”.

Delhi High Court advocate Abhik Chimni, who took up the case recently, explains that it's not just an open-and-shut case of power theft but a larger legal battle that involves the land.

Jai Hind Camp is built on roughly 18,000 square metres of land, recognised by the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) as belonging to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

About 25-30 years ago, working-class Bengali Muslim residents of West Bengal, who had been migrating to Delhi in search of jobs at the turn of the millenium, started settling in the Masoodpur village area to cater to the needs of the growing urban settlements of South Delhi. At the time, the slum cluster, known as the 'C-6 Flyover Jhuggi', started becoming informally known as 'Bangali basti'.

In 2003, a fire gutted the few jhuggi jhopdis that had emerged in the area. The residents were provided monetary support by the then Delhi government to rehabilitate and establish their jhuggis again. When another fire broke out in 2004, inhabitants were given official recognition and support, including monetary benefits provided by the District Magistrate. The continued protection extended by the then Delhi government authorities further substantiate the claims of the residents' long-term presence at Jai Hind Camp as well as their recognition as a protected JJ (jhuggi jhopdi).

“In 2016, about 30 individuals from Masoodpur village filed a civil suit with a district court, claiming the land on which Jai Hind Camp exists belonged to them,” Chimni tells The Quint.

Most residents of Jai Hind Camp are from West Bengal districts like Cooch Behar, Birbhum, and others and claim to have been living in the camp for nearly two decades.

(Photo: Rakhi Bose/The Quint)

The court sought a response from the respondents—the camp residents— who failed to file any. In 2020, the court ruled in favour of the 30 residents. No appeal was filed by the respondents.

Following the ex-parte judgment, the 30 individuals sought an execution decree to execute the order. The execution order remained pending for years. In May 2024, the court instructed the disconnection of the electricity sanctioned to residents of the Jai Hind Camp on the back of another petition filed by the alleged landowners in 2016, stating that since the land belonged to them, any electricity provided to others is "illegal".

Then the 2024 Lok Sabha polls happened.

"Everything changed since then. There was an increasing push against Bangladeshi or Rohingya immigrants illegally living in the city as part of their Delhi Assembly election 2025 campaign. Last year, there were searches in the area by local police who came to look for Bangladeshis."

C Saiyadul Sheikh, a migrant worker from Dinhata village of Bengal

In 2025, the case moved, and in February, an eviction order was given for executing the 2020 judgment in favour of the 30 individuals. Sheikh admits that most residents had no idea about the cases nor had they ever met any lawyer.

Due to not filing a response, the respondents lost the electricity petition. While the order to cut the electricity was given last year, with the executive decree order coming through, the electricty was also cut.

Chimni, who's representing the respondents in the land eviction case, has now filed questions over the ownership claim by the 30 individuals, on the following grounds:

• Since the camp is built on DDA land, it needs to have been made party to the title suit over ownership and usage rights

• The DUSIB, in its 16th Board meeting held on 11 April 2016, had approved the Delhi Slum & JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015 (“2015 Policy”)

• If one assumes that it wasn’t DDA land, and that it was indeed private land wrongfully identified as DDA land, the onus is on the authorities for misidentification and not on residents. In that case, rehabilitate or compensate the residents, as per the DUSIB policy.

The petition, which was filed on Tuesday, 14 July, has managed to get a stay on the eviction for now, as per a court order on 19 July. But the matter of electricity remains an issue. Advocate Pranjal Abrol, working with Chimni on the petition, says that the team is trying to get interim relief in the electricity issue on the grounds that this is a DUSIB-enlisted jhuggi, and those living here are entitled to receive basic civic amenities like electricity and water.

Communalising Bengali Identity

With West Bengal going to polls in a year, the Bengali identity has become highly communalised and politicised.

Since Operation Sindoor, multiple reports showed the government has been allegedly "pushing back" Bengali-speaking Muslims across the Bangladesh border. That number stands at more than 2,000 persons, according to a report by Citizens for Justice and Peace, a human rights body.

As per reports by the media as well as labour activists, not all who have been deported or detained were Bangladeshi.

As per a report by Newslaundry, several Bengali Muslims were picked up from their homes in Ghaziabad on 9 July, and on 11 July were detained for deportation. The detainees claim they are Indian citizens, with documents tracing their origin to Loni. Two families from West Bengal's Murarai and Paikar villages of Birbhum district have also alleged being deported from Delhi on claims of being illegal immigrants, as per a report in The Hindu. The families are planning to approach the court.

Without clarifying further, a Delhi Police officer at the Vasant Kunj police station said that investigations were being carried out against illegal immigrants in accordance with law, and that "those with papers have nothing to fear."

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal has been repeatedly raising the matter of the alleged harassment of Bengali migrant workers, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently tweeting that she was "deeply disturbed" by the developments at Jai Hind Colony, a settlement "predominantly inhabited by Bengalis who built the city as part of its unorganised workforce." On 16 July, her party also held mass rallies in Kolkata and other parts against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), giving the impression that it is not likely to let the 'Bengali identity' issue rest as the state heads to polls.

On 21 July, the TMC supremo is likely to participate in the annual Martyrs' Day rally in Kolkata, where she is expected to reiterate the message.

Jai Hind camp residents attending advocacy meetings held by social workers from Sangrami Gharelu-Kamgar Union.

(Photo: Rakhi Bose/T

e Quint)

In what appears to be a response to "anti-Bengali" criticism, the BJP appointed former Bengal party chief Ashim Ghosh as the Governor of Haryana.

According to Kolkata-based political analyst Sayantan Ghosh, the move is "politically aimed to assuage any hurt sentiments among potential Bengali voters in West Bengal. For this, they must ensure the migrants here are seen as 'Bangladeshis' or 'Rohingyas', and thus justify the deportation."

"That is why you see so much right-wing media clamour to arbitrarily label Bengali Muslim migrants facing harassment in other states as illegal interlopers," he says.

Meanwhile, the BJP in Bengal recently appointed Shamik Bhattacharya, a known moderate face, as the unit president, who made a pitch for the BJP's Muslim outreach in his maiden address. In fact, when in Durgapur for a rally last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself responded to the TMC's allegations of the BJP harbouring "anti-Bengali sentiments", by saying:

"For the BJP, Bengali identity is above all. But what is happening here? Trinamool is threatening West Bengal's culture for its own sake. It is bringing in infiltrators, making fake identity cards. It has created an ecosystem, as a result, the country is being harmed, Bengal is being harmed. They have crossed all limits (for appeasement).”

Back in Delhi, Rahul Bal, a member of the All India Congress Committee, told The Quint that the Congress is watching the developments in Delhi closely.

"There are 675 approved, 82 enlisted, and about 1,300 unofficial bastis in Delhi. While only 0.5 percent of the land is used by 23 percent of Delhi's slum-dwellers, parking space takes up nearly 2 percent of land. Now, by further removing these bastis from the capital, the BJP wants to implement the Dharavi model in Delhi, by bringing in someone like Gautam Adani to 'redevelop' the slum," he claimed.

General secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (CPI-ML (L)), Dipankar Bhattacharya, said in a statement:

"From Wazirpur to Jai Hind Camp, from Bihari migrants to their Bengali counterparts, the insecurity of the urban poor and labouring people in Delhi has now reached an unprecedented level after the BJP victory in Delhi."

He addressed a briefing in the capital on 19 July, highlighting the linkages between the evictions in Delhi, the Election Commission-proposed electoral roll revision in Bihar, NRC in Assam and deportation of Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants from across BJP-ruled states.

Jai Hind Camp residents, including the hundreds of children living on premises, foresee a long fight ahead.

(Photo: Rakhi Bose/The Quint)

Living in the Dark

Back at the camp, residents have been dealing with the everyday struggles of life without power. Some of the local sellers have seen a business opportunity and risen to the occasion. Delhi’s Khanpur village resident ABC Khan, a local seller of wares, has set up a new cart inside the camp, selling emergency lights.

At Rs 600 a piece, there aren’t many takers. A social worker buys two, for the advocacy meetings they are conducting with the locals. “I don’t usually sell lights but I thought people here may need it,” he says sheepishly.

Mohd Nazrul, an English Honours graduate from Birbhum, known locally as ‘Nazrul Master’, also bought an emergency light and is hoping to use it to resume his teaching. He earns a few thousand bucks a month by giving tuitions to about 200 children in the locality and proudly states that some of his students have passed Class 10 exams.

“It is very difficult to ensure education for children in marginalised areas. Even now, their studies have been the first casualty. No power means no classes since most of the lessons were held in the evening. Kids are also missing school as they are up through the night."

Mohd Nazrul

The residents have also been growing increasingly worried about rising communalisation in Delhi. “We hear there are mass deportations, evictions, and door-to-door searches. Since the election, there is a palpable fear among many Bengali Muslims. It is the language that they recognise, before tagging us as Bangladeshi or Rohingya. And our language, so beloved to us, has become our biggest enemy,” adds Nazrul.

For people like Nazrul and others at the camp, who have families back home that depend on the income they make in the city, an eviction would mean not only homelessness but penury.

The migrants living in the area work as domestic workers, gardeners, drivers, car washers, construction workers, electricians, painters, casual labourers, catering to the needs of the residents of the high end, gated colonies of Vasant Kunj.

"We don't really have the option to move. The West Bengal government gives freebies and support, but no jobs. We need to feed the kids and educate them. If they want us to move, they have to compensate," says Fatima Bibi, a community leader at the camp and one of the appellants in the petition against the 2020 order.

While the stay order has brought some interim relief, the locals fear this is not the end. And, above all, the camp is still in the dark with no electricity.