Delhi’s Demolition Drive Is a War on Its Workers

(Disclaimer: The author is the counsel for some of the residents of the Bhoomiheen Camp, Govindpuri, Kalkaji and appears for them before the Delhi High Court)Located in South East Delhi, the Bhoomiheen Camp of Govindpuri—a thirty-year-old cluster of jhuggi-jhopri bastis—is home to approximately 3,000 slum dwellers.Most residents do menial jobs as domestic workers, security guards, chauffeurs, and gardeners in the nearby, rich neighbourhoods of Kalkaji, Chittaranjan Park, and Greater Kailash; some are daily wagers employed at construction sites and factories in the city. Their everyday labour keeps the city and most of the plush houses and sprawling bungalows of South Delhi running but on Monday, 2 June, when the bulldozers came to raze their houses even as their belongings and earnings made over a lifetime lay inside, none of their employers—most of whom are pretty powerful and well-connected—came to lodge resistance.Perhaps this is because the rich man does not conceive the poor as a fully functional human being; they think the poor work at their houses and thereafter, disappear.'Our Homes Reduced To Rubble': Aftermath of Delhi's Taimoor Nagar DemolitionEarlier this year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rode to power in Delhi with a poll promise of Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makaan, a political manifestation of what the law already provides: in-situ rehabilitation and resettlement of all jhuggi jhopri bastis which came into existence before 1 January, 2006.Since then, the BJP has also won the mayoral election in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and has secured a majority in its Standing Committee, which is central to crucial civic work in Delhi. With its control of Delhi now complete, the BJP has also made lofty declarations of unabated and uninterrupted development with the ‘roadblock’ of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) now well and truly removed. However, over the past several weeks, the administration has conducted a spate of demolitions to evict jhuggi dwellers, street vendors, and hawkers, either as a part of a ‘cleanliness mission’ or to remove ‘illegal encroachment.’While it is true that in case of jhuggi jhopri clusters, the demolitions have been approved by the Delhi High Court, the State has done little to rehabilitate or assure resettlement to the residents who suddenly find themselves homeless in a city in which they have worked and lived for decades.In the case of the Taimoor Nagar demolitions conducted in the first week of May, for instance, several residents complained of receiving no alternate allotment; the State wriggled out of its responsibility of providing a resettlement plan by pleading that these residents did not meet the eligibility requirements for rehabilitation. Interestingly, the demolitions in Taimoor Nagar were carried out at the behest of the rich residents of Maharani Bagh and New Friends Colony who told the Court that the ‘unauthorised’ constructions on the Taimoor Nagar drain clogged their streets with dirty water.The slum dwellers of Taimoor Nagar were the same house helps and cooks who had worked in the Maharani Bagh houses for years; in a jiffy, their homes were razed for they caused inconvenience. Ground Report: Why Are Hundreds of Batla House Homes Marked for Demolition?In another case involving around 300 homes in the Madrasi Camp of Jangpura, the State authorities had issued a demolition notice on 3 May, even as several matters pertaining to rehabilitation and alternate relocation of jhuggi dwellers remained pending before the Court.The residents of Madrasi Camp have inhabited the colony for several decades, and their children now receive education at the local government-aided Delhi Tamil Education Association (DTEA) school in their mother tongue, Tamil.After generations of backwardness on account of socio-economic disadvantage, such basic nearby facilities had given the residence a chance to break the vicious cycle of poverty and illiteracy.However, the authorities refused to relocate the residents within the 5 km radius of the Camp or in Dwarka, which would have protected their livelihood and allowed their children to continue their education at the DTEA school. Most residents now find themselves relegated to Narela, with scarce options of employment and education in sight. The demolitions in the Bhoomiheen Camp of Govindpuri are even more egregious, with the mandatory procedures of the Resettlement Policy and Protocol given a complete go-by. Since this basti stands on Central Government land, the law requires the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to conduct a joint survey so as to collect data for rehabilitation and resettlement before conducting any kind of eviction or demolition.Back in 2019, when the AAP Government in Delhi controlled the DUSIB, the Central government-controlled DDA unilaterally excluded the DUSIB from the survey process and outsourced the survey work to a private third party. This was the first flouting of the law, as DUSIB is the only expert nodal agency for resettlement in Delhi, the primary mandate of which is to ensure that removal of encroachment does not lead to dispossession or homelessness. Any survey conducted without the collaboration of DUSIB vitiates the entire eviction process. What is more, this survey drive was conducted between 10 AM and 6 PM, the peak working hours for the residents of the basti. Upon completion of this survey, several residents found themselves ‘ineligible’ for relocation on account of, amongst other things, missing documents.To what is more, this survey drive was conducted between 10 AM and 6 PM, the peak working hours for the residents of the basti. Upon completion of this survey, several residents found themselves ‘ineligible’ for relocation on account of, amongst other things, missing documents.After the single judge bench of the Delhi High Court cleared the demolition drive in the last week of May, the residents were hardly given the time to avail their right of appeal before the appellate bench. On Monday, minutes before the High Court heard appeals to stay the demolition, homes were razed in the Camp. Two Demolitions, One Crisis: Bulldozer Politics Is Undermining the CourtsWhile giving effect to eviction drives, most stakeholders forget that the thrust of the law is on providing resettlement to jhuggi dwellers and not on demolition.Delhi is a city of migrant labourers who do not encroach public land out of joy; they are constrained to live without proper civic facilities such as sanitation and electricity because the city refuses to accommodate them with dignity.Our courts have recognised that there exists in India what sociologists characterise as the ‘Right to the city’, which envisages equitable urban spaces where all who work and produce are guaranteed a respectful existence.Yet, what we now see in Delhi is emphasis on the exception rather than the rule; instead of stressing on rehabilitation, the authorities now seem in a hurry to relegate the working class to ghettos which are worse off than their previous bastis.Rehabilitation, in most cases, is denied basis absence of one specific document, even as other documents such as electricity bill or a bank pass book provide ample evidence of continued residence. Production of ration card, for instance, is mandatory to claim allotment for a family residing on the upper floor of a dwelling house.However, post the implementation of the National Food Security Act of 2013 in Delhi, number of ration card holders has significantly dropped. The burden of entangling and harmoniously implementing this mesh of laws falls on the State and not on the residents or jhuggi dwellers who, despite their limited means, do their best to adhere to the extant laws.The Resettlement Policy and Protocol of 2015 demands enforcement with empathy and yet, the State prefers formal compliance. What often gets overlooked in debates and discussions is how demolition of a dwelling house is the highest form of humiliation.The privileged of this city would struggle to empathise with a family whose house has been demolished in the presence of their community, with no relocation or rehabilitation plan in sight.On 2 June, after the Delhi High Court refused to interfere with the imminent demolitions in the Bhoomiheen Camp, a mix of tiredness from the previous night’s work and disappointment took over me. I still had a home to go to and sleep over it; my client Manjoor Ali, whose house was demolished while the matter was before the Court, did not anymore. Maybe this is what the State does not understand—a home is where you go with all your burdens, regrets, and disappointments. To demolish someone’s house is to snatch away a refuge for the soul.(The author is an advocate practicing in New Delhi. He can be reached at 7h.anand@gmail.com. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

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Delhi’s Bulldozer Politics is Leaving the Poor Homeless

What often gets overlooked in discussions is how demolition of a home is the highest form of humiliation.

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Topics: Delhi BJP Bulldozer