Hardlook: Life by the tracks and in between

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Dec 21, 2015: Half-naked and barefoot, children run along the tracks, unmindful of a few others defecating while squatting on them. The mothers, apart from occasional glances over their shoulders, remain seated on cots placed between two tracks; busy with their chores. Men play cards, some stroll by the side of the tracks. A few bicycles rest against the iron poles. Grains are spread on bedsheets, clothes hung on ropes. A Bollywood song plays in the background: Wada na tod (Dil Tujhko Diya, 1987).

It is noon and a train barrels down the tracks, towards the life being lived by the tracks and the space in between. Women pull their children close, men drag the cots away. The train rushes past and life is back on track again, till the next train appears on the horizon. For residents of 900-odd jhuggis (shanties) lining up two sides of the tracks between North West Delhi’s Keshavpuram and Wazirpur areas, what appears chaotic to an outsider’s eye is an everyday affair.

They are encroachers on Railways land. And, there are many of them along the tracks across Delhi. As many as 47,000 jhuggis are packed in 52 clusters along 70 km of tracks, according to data with the Northern Railways. Some houses are “hard encroachments” made of brick and mortar; others are “soft encroachments”, set up after 1998.

Mehrun Khatun, 30, sits by the track, inserting beads into a rubber strap for a sandal. She gets Rs 1 for inserting beads into 12 such straps. Her children help her. Together, they make Rs 100 a day. Her husband is a rickshaw puller. “We manage to earn just enough for our family,” says Khatun. This place has been her “home” for 10 years. “Where else can we go?”

Her neighbour Vikram, a daily wage labourer and father of three, says, “I came here 10 years ago from Amroha and this was the only place we could afford. I know this is a dangerous place to stay, but we have managed to survive till now. Although a few deaths have been reported, no such incident has taken place in the last one year.”

Vikram seems disturbed. “Are you from the Railways?” he asks. The December 12 demolition of shanties in Shakurbasti has given him sleepless nights. “Kejriwal (Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal) toh bola hai ki koi jhuggi nahi tootega, lekin ab kuchh pakka nahi hai (Kejriwal has said jhuggis will not be demolished, but now nothing is certain),” he says.

Close by, near Adarsh Nagar bridge, a jhuggi is home to barber Arun Kumar, 28. His saloon, a modest five feet by five feet room, is near the track. “I charge Rs 20 for a haircut and Rs 15 for a shave. I make Rs 6,000 to 7,000 a month,” he says. From the background, his 50-year-old mother shouts, “He is lying. He hasn’t earned even Rs 50 today.” Kumar grins and says, “Sometimes, business is very bad.”

At 3 pm, another train approaches. As the discussion veers towards the Shakurbasti demolition, Kumar seems unperturbed. “If they demolish our houses, we will have to move, but the Railways have to serve a notice first, right? They haven’t served us a notice since 1997.”

About 15 km from Adarsh Nagar bridge, near Asia’s biggest textile market, Gandhi Bazaar, lies a cluster of shanties from Lohapul to Shahdara, stretching up to three kilometres. After the Shakurbasti demolition, which triggered protests amid the death of a toddler, a proposed demolition drive by Railways on December 19 in this area was not carried out.

Maifuz Ali moved from Lucknow to Delhi in 1985 and made his home in this cluster. “We know we are sitting on Railway land, lekin ab jayenge kahan (where else will we go now)?” He says the place received notices from the Railways twice this year, but “nothing happened”.

Palak, 60, another resident of the cluster, says, “If the Railways want to demolish our jhuggi, they have to give us a place to stay. What about Kejriwal’s promise?” She brandishes her voter ID. Jurisdiction of Railways and Delhi government are not what she loses sleep over.

For the Railways, clearing their land of such encroachment is a long procedure. Railways officials say they are not against rehabilitation and have even paid the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) for this work.

A Railways official who does not want to be named says, “Between 2003-05, we paid DUSIB Rs 11.25 crore for removing 4,410 jhuggis, but 10 years later, only 297 jhuggis were removed. We have also asked them to conduct a survey of six jhuggi jhopdi (JJ) clusters between New Delhi and Narela for rehabilitation and relocation. Four are completed and two are going on.”

A Railways document states that apart from the project in Shakurbasti, a Rs 156-crore grade separator connecting Bhatinda line to Ambala line was sanctioned in 2000. The document states both the “approaches are full of encroachments. One at Daya Basti and another at Lawrence Road”.

In the late winter afternoon, children gather near a golgappa stall. Next to it, a vendor has spread out sarees. Senior citizens sit on plastic chairs, basking in the sun. It is as residential a colony as any, except that there is little authorised about it.

A ride from New Delhi to Adarsh Nagar railway station and a closer look than usual reveals more about lives lived on the railway tracks.

More than six years ago, the Railways had planned a new terminal with three platforms in New Delhi area. The project is yet to take off. Land allotted for the project became home to Shakurbasti.

The demolition of Shakurbasti led to a PIL in the Delhi High Court by Congress leader Ajay Maken, seeking orders for a rehabilitation plan for the displaced residents. The court rapped the Railways for clearing Shakurbasti jhuggi cluster “without alternate arrangements” for rehabilitation of its residents “in the biting cold”. The court also pulled up the Railways after its counsel failed to answer queries on whether a proper survey of the area had been done as per law.

 

 

Courtesy: Indianexpress