Tucked away behind Dashera Park in Delhi’s Janakpuri lie the skeletons of cemented structure. Behind the hill of the broken concrete is a makeshift camp, so unnoticeable that even as people frequent the park, mostly to learn how to drive a car or ride a bike, nobody notices the handful of people who have been staging a protest camp since mid-December last year in the middle of Delhi winters.
For the last 17 years, LUI Welfare Progressive Association of the Blind, an organisation dedicated to help the blind, had been providing lodging for the blind — most of whom comprised of students and youth from distant states looking for better opportunities in the capital. But after close to two decades of service, the hostel was demolished by the Delhi Development Authority and suddenly the hostel residents found themselves without a roof.
The former residents of the hostel (which housed at least 13 people in eight rooms) erected a tent next to the site of demolition and moved in there with their bunk beds and whatever else they could salvage before the demolition to stage a protest against the demolition.
They were hoping to convince the DDA to rebuild their hostel. But for these men, the battle seems to be ending with defeat and all the visits to the DDA authorities seems to have come to naught. A month into their camping outdoors, they are running out of time, especially since as per a DDA notice they will have to relocate out of their camp by 24 January.
According to a notice served by the DDA, the government authority had taken physical possession of the land in 1989 and three attempts to demolish the building was made in 2017 after residents of the area filed a complaint on grounds of “trespassing” and “unhygienic conditions” around the building.
“On humanitarian grounds”, the DDA authorities have offered to temporarily accommodate the men in a community hall behind Tihar Jail, but the former residents aren’t happy with that offer.
“I don’t know what will happen,” Kamlesh Kumar, the General Secretary of the Hostel shrugs and says. Kumar has been running back and forth between DDA officials to find a suitable site to relocate all the residents, but a few days before they all move out of the camp, he seems to have an unusually cool air about himself.
“They demolished the hostel without so much even a notice and now they want to break the union of the members of the hostel and temporarily relocate us to a community hall next to Tihar Jail. The area is full of miscreants and definitely not the choicest place for the blind. The DDA should think about that,” Kumar says.
Around 10:30 am, he gets visitors from the DDA to discuss the next course of action. A DDA official, who wishes to remain anonymous, says, “We help as much as we can, but the order comes from top and there’s little we can do.”
Four days before their deadline, unlike Kumar, the other protesting residents don’t have much to do at 9 in the morning but to stay in bed and find a shelter to relocate to.
“There aren’t too many belongings and most of what we had lie under the rubbles of the demolished hostel”, Dev Narayan Divedi, a 12th standard student of Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya says.
There are a few books, a broken cooler, a couple of lamps and unused cycles among a miscellany of objects in the camp.
Ankur, a Final Year student of Shivaji College, lies under his blanket listening to the news. He has no plans for the day, he says. “Maybe I’ll move out by afternoon today,” he murmurs.
When Dev Narayan learns of his friend’s plans to move out, he says, “Then I’ll also move out today.” Unlike Ankur, who plans to live on rent, Dev Narayan who is still a school student, will move into the Community Hall.
Kamal, a BA graduate, says he’ll head homewards in Jharkhand to be with his family.
The protesting men are expected to move out by 24 January, and not all of them are decided on their future plans yet.
Although some of the former residents will find a way to restart their lives, find newer employment opportunities and cities, the transition will be difficult for school-goers like Dev Narayan, who can't make a drastic change in the middle of their school year. They can only hope to find a new residence sensitive to their needs.
The story will be updated as and when The Quint obtains an official statement from DDA officials on the demolition.
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