1.  HUNDRED THOUSANDS STARVING DUE TO EVICTIONS IN MUMBAI
     -- D.Leena, SDF

Since the day Vilas Rao Deshmukh occupied the Chief Minister’s position, evictions and demolitions in Mumbai have been rampant. Apparently, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party coalition (NPC) has disregarded their electoral oath that all pre-2000 slums in Mumbai should be protected and regularised. It was because of this pledge that the party was voted to power but within one month after the election, the government started a demolition drive. Today more than 90,000 houses have been demolished, leaving 350,000 people without food and shelter.

Astonishingly, the people who provide the city services, with their cheap labour and unconditional working hours, are now been targeted as illegal dwellers. It is due to their sweat and blood that Mumbai is the industrial and commercial capital of India. In most of the cases in Maharashtra, people migrated from villages when they were on the verge of starvation; in cities they can manage two square meals a day.
In most of the current eviction cases, the evictees have been living in Mumbai for 8 to 10 years. Most of them settled in creek sides, which are low-lying lands, with tall grass and insects and snakes infestations. With their labour and hard work, the evictees managed to fill the trench with mud, sand and cement. Previously, it was only a barren piece of land the government was not utilizing. Now that the people have made the site fit for habitation however, the government is interested in converting the land into commercial ventures.

But with the idea of beautification and need for the authorities to make Mumbai a world-class city, hundreds of thousands are left with no option but to starve. Houses have been demolished with no rehabilitation and no compensation. The people have been simply asked to move to the outskirts of the city.

There is no resettlement plan for those who were dwelling in the structures built after 1st January 1995. According to the Common Minimum Programme, the UPA government (United Progressive Alliance), which is running the coalition government under Dr. Manmohan Singh, advocates against forced eviction anywhere in India. In a sharp contrast to their pledges however, the UPA government is forcefully evicting thousands of dwellers with no alternative accommodation. Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees the right to housing as a fundamental right, wherein the State has to provide shelter to make the right to life meaningful. The evictions do not conform to any procedural guidelines laid out by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to ensure that evictions do not cause hardships to the evicted population.

The notion of any cut-off date, either January 1995 or 2004, is ultra vires the Constitution of India. It must also be noted that the demolitions have taken place without any apparent justification, such as the immediate need of the land for development projects. Further, the demolitions have been carried on at the insistence of builders, mafia groups, and politicians, all in league with one another, wanting to grab the land in Mumbai for themselves.

Article 19 gives us the freedom to move freely, reside and settle in any part of India. This is enough to demonstrate the illegality of the cut-off dates altogether. But the Deputy CM R.R. Patil maintains that there are about 200 families coming to Mumbai every day and after demolitions, about 300 migrating out of the city.

Infrastructure development is putting the poor into a state of despair; thousands of homes have been destroyed and many now live under the sun. With rising mercury levels in most parts of India, these people, without food and drinking water as well, will die. Further, as these families left their village in search of livelihoods, they cannot survive even if they return. The state government’s insensitivity towards the poor is appalling.

Since November 2004, a number of protests and rallies have occurred in Mumbai. Initially, mainly activists, trade unionists and intellectuals came forward against the government and related officials. As a result, the impact of the protests was not fully felt. However, with recent rallies by Rajendra in Juhu Tara road and the hunger fast of Dharna at Priyadarshni Vihar in Wadala, people have come out in the open to protest against the demolitions and evictions.

A number of children died this past winter, which was exceptionally severe this year while others continue to suffer; their health, nutrition, safety and sense of security are lost forever. Their education has bee disrupted and their books lie crushed under the might of the bull- dozers sent by the State to turn its citizens into refugees on their own land. The children live in fear while their parents take turns sitting guard, night and day, over their limited belongings instead of going to work.

It seems the authorities have never heard of due process of law or giving notice of evictions. In Vikhroli Park East Side, the homes of a small cluster of 2000 families, called Kanamuar Nagar, was bulldozed when the residents were celebrating their New Year (Sankrati) on January 14, 2004. According to Pratibha Kadam, a member of the community, Kanamuar Nagar was full of water and mud when the families first settled. The residents worked hard to fill the creek and reclaim the land to make it livable. According to her, bulldozers razed their houses in minutes and now nothing is left. She kept on comparing the situation with the tsunami and that the bulldozer left nothing intact. Most of their utensils were destroyed and they don’t have any place to cook. For days, many of the residents survived by spending their savings, but now, their money is gone and the families live with no food, water or shelter.

According to Ansari Sheikh, resident of Rafiq Nagar/Baba Nagar, the authorities came five to six times one month before finally destroying most of their belongings, utensils, and cloths. The Rafiq Nagar slum was reclaimed from a marshy land in 1996. There were about 800 houses located there before demolition occurred last December. Ansari Sheikh explains from the day the demolition started, none of victims could go to work. For the first few days none of them had food; those who had some money bought sustenance for their children and those who could not starved. Moving back to their villages was further not an option because no work or place exists for them there. The evictees had been living in the slum for almost ten years and their children were being educated. After the demolitions occurred, the people are starving and the children are not being educated.

Mumbai has become a duplicitous city; the people who provided the hands to build the city to international standards are being denied livelihood, food and shelter. The burden of debt and the extremely low procurement prices on their products have pushed farmers to commit suicide in the State of Maharashtra. Lack of work, hunger and low wages haunt the rural poor, who cannot come to Mumbai in search of jobs. Further, those who have jobs in the city are being thrown out. The Supreme Court of India has recognized that the right to life includes the right to food, clothing, shelter and livelihood. Deprivation of a single one of these leads to a loss of dignity, fundamental freedom, and equality.