The Basti People

As I was getting down the stairs of a metro station, after a tiresome day working as a volunteer at the commonwealth games, my mind kept cribbing about the kind of food we were given for our services to our country. Frustrated with my mind and a little tired with the commuting stress, I almost bumped into a lady dressed in rags holding a child and waiting for somebody. Inquisitive freak that I am, I couldn’t hold myself from asking her who was she waiting for so expectantly, she replied she was waiting for her husband who was going to come after a 16 hour long shift at a construction site and they would walk back home to their “home in a basti nearby” together. Her home she said constituted of a room and for bathing and other chores, they used a set of common bathrooms in the basti. She refused to tell me where her basti was for some reason unknown to me. I didn’t stress either but…

For almost 5 minutes my mind raced like a Shatabdi Express passing a lot of things. Few of those-

Our first perception of the woman would have been that of a greedy beggar holding the child to get money….who gave air to such prejudices??

A home in the SLUMS nearby…after 16 hour long shift, how justified is this??

Is this her pursuit of happiness, should her contentment be taken for granted and any scope of her development be ignored???

Do she and her husband live here by choice or their poor conditions forced them to take shelter in such a place??

After I came back home playing the picture repeatedly in my head, I came across this article in the Times of India website with an ironical chuckle… DDA asks Delhi govt for land to shelter 30 lakh slum-dwellers

The article informs that our city Delhi is the proud mountain with about 6 LAKH SLUMS with over 30 lakh people residing in them. Their development….Is very important and would be carried out by clearing the unhygienic heap these people reside in and rehabilitate them in cleaner and better homes. Speaking on the same A K Walia, state Finance Minister said, “The only way to improve their living conditions is to either go for in-situ development, for which we require approval from various agencies that own the land, or build new houses. For new development, around 4 lakh flats or land area of approximately 2,700 acres is required. For this purpose, we have asked the DDA to allot more land.

On the issue of the vast gap between supply and demand of housing in the city, the state minister attributed it to the multiplicity of authority structures. “While the DDA falls under the central government, the slum development department falls under the union home ministry. The only development authority which comes under the purview of Delhi state is DSIIDC,” he said.

I put the paper down with a sigh only to see a news channel showing how a group of unhappy and dissatisfied lot of worker employed at CWG residing DIRTY AND STINKY place which the reporter thought was DILLI KA DHAARAAVI….

There is whole tainted circle…the rehabilitated people would have to return to the slums without proper jobs…proper jobs can’t be given unless they have sufficient degrees….what can be done then???

Development, I agree is the need of the hour…but who is responsible for carrying out this development, the Union Ministry, the State Ministry or the People residing in these places??? Or a support structure needs to be panned out between these 3 groups to understand what the best is for them.

Next day, few of my colleagues went up to the Venue Commander and complained Venue commander of the bad food, who said he needed time, and later complained the security officials wouldn’t be very appreciative of the idea, during the games.