Demolition Drive in Vadodara, 2014: Kathyayini Dash, Rushabh Vishawakarma, Hussain Sabu, Bhagwati Prasad Suryavanshi
DECEMBER 12, 2014
Guest post by KATHYAYINI DASH, RUSHABH VISHAWAKARMA, HUSSAIN SABU & BHAGWATI PRASAD SURYAVANSHI
In Tarsali, 10 kilometers from Vadodara
Note from authors:
We are a group of friends and students from MS University, Baroda. One of us, Rushabh, lives in Kalyannagar which has partly been demolished and this house too is slated for demolition. We have written this to bring to the surface what demolition and displacement means, from the perspective of those who live in places like Kalyannagar, which cannot even be called a ‘slum’. We could see first hand what happened during the demolition because our friend lived there. We all have spent happy times at Kalyannagar, Rushabh’s home. We felt we owe it to these memories to at least record these events. You can visit us at BarodaBeat.
Development they say…
They say by 2015, not one jhopdi will be seen…Vadodara’s landscape would be studded with flyovers, high rise buildings, malls, clean pothole-free roads. There will be no stench of garbage, leave alone the sight of it.
The recent floods in Vadodara set off an alarm, urging the quick setting up of “river-front projects” which included the demolition and re-location of slum dwellings near the river which were so awfully affected during the floods.
They say, “this is not fair. They sure need help; first priority in fact. They have to be the first to be taken into consideration before going on to people who have it all: a raised plinth level, a well cemented house, resources to recover the losses incurred in the floods. The jhopdiwaale, well, they have nothing at all, don’t they? Already low on the economic scale, they have no resources to recover the losses incurred during the floods, they don’t even have pakka houses to resist the floods. And on top of it all, they have houses built along the river itself. Poor things, where else would they build their houses. But then, these houses shouldn’t be there in the first place isn’t it? Because this is government land, and they don’t have the right to live there. What good is it anyway?” they say. “It is near the river, there is always a dangerous risk of the river flooding and them and their houses drowning,” they say.
“And no one must live in such flimsy, unsettling conditions,” they say. “We must house them in more civic and hygienic conditions than makeshift houses such as these,” they say. ” We must give them all the basic facilities required to live a humane civilized life, they say. All facilities including good sanitation, enough water for both drinking and other purposes, 24X7 electricity, and a strong cemented house, they say. Yes, that should do it. One must strive to be as equal as possible,” they say. Equal lives, equal money, equal houses, equal opportunities, equal priority. So, these people ought to be housed somewhere else. Not here, along the dirty river lands. Somewhere cleaner, better, more equal. Start from the grassroot, that’s where one should begin. Work your way upwards, they say.
They say, they say, they say, they say.
They came in the morning with the JCB bulldozers, 15 of them, and said to take as much as you can in half an hour , your house is going to be broken down. What about notice? They came and told us in the night that they’re going to take our houses down in the morning. They marked the outskirts of Kalyannagar from the river, saying they needed to make structures as a part of the government river front project and this much will need to be demolished. They came in the morning and Dadaji saw the JCB outside gnawing at his home and got a heart attack and died. Not only him, there were 3-4 others who suffered similiarly. One house took all of 10 minutes to mow down. Brick walls fell like paper, crumbling to the ground. The well cemented ones took a bit longer, but with the persistent banging of the JCB, those too broke. Within 8-9 hours, 400 houses were cleared. There was a horizon of brick and cement.
Kalyannagar
Many of us went with all the remains of our windows, doors and patras and bamboos and set up temporary houses along the river. Where else to go, right? They say it will take months for them to allott houses. ” Tomorrow, their houses are going to be broken so they better take their possesions, and their doors and windows, and clear out before the JCBs come tomorrow,” they say. That’s the entire night’s work. We? We will sit by the river, the plastic sheets above our heads should save us from the cold. Tomorrow, some are going to file a petition asking for a stay. For just some more time. The Muslims of Kalyannagar already had filed and gotten a stay order since the children had their 12th and 10th board exams coming up.They even got a 4 month stay not because of this but because both the Hindus and the Muslims had major festivals that time. But suddenely, they came out of nowhere and started the process. “They have started and now we have to move. This house was built with a great amount of effort, labour and sweat, brick by brick this was put together. Generations have lived here. Look! I even have papers for the house and an electricity meter. And now see, they are breaking our houses down.”
A long queue trailed the entire Kalyannagar road. Everyone, frantically filling forms for claiming the government compensation of a house in Pratapnagar, Maneja or Jambua. Each of them, not less than 10-15 kms from the main city. And in the background, the JCBs are in full swing.
“Today, 400 more,” they say. “But Sir, what about the outskirting mark?” “No, we have got order to remove the entire slum. Haven’t you heard of the jhopdi hatao abhiyaan,you illiterates!” they say. “What do you care, you’re going to get better houses,” they say. “With all the facilities,” they say. “What is there for you in this dirty place?” they say. “When we are helping you, why resist and make things difficult for everyone,” they say. “Quietly go clear out your house and let us do our job,” they say.
“The petition was taken into consideration perhaps because they say there is a 2 month stay. But you never know. We still have time, it will take time to reach the other side of the road, but what about them? Those who have cleared out of their house? They are left hanging poor people. And its getting colder, winter’s coming. This is wrong. Do you know how many houses there are in Kalyannagar and Kamatipura combined? 15,000 houses. Yes, 15,000. Of couse, you count the smaller ones, don’t you? And around 80% are already gone in 3 days. Kamatipura is finished off and Kalyannagar is now being eaten. And have you heard of the Madhavnagar flats, the ones given for compensation? It has collapsed, the entire flat complex. I hope these aren’t the kind of houses we are getting?”
“No, no. Youre going to get better houses, they say. With all the facilities,” they say. “What is there for you in this dirty place?” they say.
“They said there will be a 2 month stay in the morning. Now they come and say, sab khaali karo,kal subah yeh pura area hataane waale hai. We are luckier you know, than the others. My grandfather and father have constructed the house in a way that foresaw a demolition. This talk of demolition has been going on for years but it never happened. It’s happenening now. So my grandfather constructed the house in such a way that everything from floor to ceiling is dismantalable, literally. It will take a lot of work, but we can dismantle everything before the JCB does.”
By dawn everything is taken down, the ceiling tiles, the Patra of the roof, the wooden beams and angles, the doors the windows, everything is packed and more than half of all these things are send to thekarkhaana. Only a major teak beam and some expensive angles are left and the bricks. That could be picked up with the help of the JCB when it breaks our house today.” My parents refuse to leave this place until they’ve seen their khoon paseene se banaaya hua ghar broken. At least it will become a memory. And as soon as it becomes a memory the better it will be for us to swallow what is happening.”
Hours pass, morning becomes afternoon. No sign of any JCB. But how come? They would come in the morning they say. This whole stretch was their estimate for today. “You won’t be getting the 2 month stay. Your house will be broken tomorrow, clear whatever you can by tonight,” they say.
“What is your problem now?!” they say. “You are getting a 2 month stay, more time to shift out,” they say. “There is no way we can leave these things in the house and live elsewhere. There are so many thefts happening, we can’t afford to have any more losses. Lets put a plastic on the ceiling to reduce the cold. Consider ourselves lucky actually. Look at those burning fires in the night studding the banks of the River Vishwamitri in the night giving birth to mornings of smoke disguised as fog. People out there, don’t even have walls; only plastic sheets and bamboo.”
“Why haven’t you stupid people applied for a house yet? Stand in the line,” they say, “Tumhara number aayega, patience rakho!” they say, “Why haven’t you shifted to the new houses? Aur phir awaaz uthaathe ho. Go shift into your houses,” they say.
It’s been a week now. Everyone is loitering about in the ruins of their own houses aimlessly. Some have put up shacks along the river some have set up along the road. The dew in the morning is making children ill. Lot of people have been taking children to SSG Civil Hospital. “We can’t live here. But where else to go? We haven’t even been alotted our houses…”
Just then some police jeeps come and park at the end of the road. They come and threaten to beat people up, to to lathi charge if they don’t move away from the road. “They even beat 3 of our women and slapped some of our children enough to scare us. They told us to scurry off to Maneja. They told us to stay there temporarily until they allot us our houses. We didn’t even have enough money left to pay the autowala to reach Maneja. So they got 2 VMC garbage trucks and we were gathered together like rubbish and dropped off with our things to Maneja.”
“We are a total of 110 families in Maneja which is 12 kms from the city. Houses haven’t even been built here. The process is still going on. We are shunted away into rooms that are 9X9 ft and are filled with sand and cement. Zenab’s room is filled with cement bags. There are no doors and no windows. There is a constant fear of our kids falling out. What am I to do? Take care of kids, look for food? There is no sign of work. No one has gone to work for 10 days now. You know, when Zafarbhai asked for a daily wage job here in the construction work of the government houses they said they’d give just some 150 rupees per day. They refused to let any of us set up small businesses here like selling some pan masala or tobacco. There are no toilets here, no places to bathe. The toilet nearby was useful but the very next day a notice was set up saying “yahaan ganda mat karo” and was locked. Where will we go? Where will the women go? We have to go bathe with our clothes on in public and come to one of the doorless, windowless rooms and change our clothes. So many times people have been caught gaping like voyeurs at us. And think about Zehera, she has a young daughter, unmarried, and a small girl. What is she to do? She has to go every time with the girls to watch over them when they need to go to the “loo”. She is the only earner. Rather, was. Now she is out of job. There are so many single mothers like her. Now, turned jobless, many of their sons and daughters have left education taking on responsibility of the house. ‘Abhi mai padhke kya karoon amma? Mai abhi kaam pe jaaunga nahi toh ghar kaise chalega?’ All our children have lost their education. There are no schools or hospitals nearby. We have been treated like animals. Worse even. There is only one tanki from which such dirty water comes but we have no choice, we were told to use this for drinking and washing, everything. The contractor here gave 4 families one bulb to share. By night, there is pitch darkness. What is happening?”
Maneja
Pratapnagar, is an area 10 kms from the city. “It has been 4 months since we have been staying here, there are already cracks in the building. The gutter leaks and there are heaps of garbage everywhere. No, no, this is not because we don’t have dustbins. The VMC truck crosses our locality and promptly drives away. They haven’t once stopped by to even ask ‘Kachra hai kya?’ The water motor is installed, but doesn’t work. They say we need to cough up money to repair the motor, but they never came. We need to pull water out of the 50ft deep tankis with our children round our waists. The water stinks of the gutter. So many have even fallen ill because of consuming such dirty water. Our skins itch when we bathe with this water. We have to go begging people for water. Water! Such a basic necessity. We need to beg for water now?”
Tarsali is an area 10 kms from the city. People had already been living here for the past 2 months. People from Bhaiyyachali, Tarsali, Govindnagar, Kalyannagar and the jhopdis behind Natraj Talkies occupy this island. Yes, island. Surrounded with the ocean of private property, this place doesn’t even have a road. Let alone a road, it doesn’t even have a gate! The only entry from the highway is a kachcha road that goes through some private flat complexes and a field, is a ten INCH space provided for entry and exit.
Entry To The Tarsali Building Complex
The entire Tarsali flat area is circumscribed with a cement boundary wall. At 6:00 in the evening, themaalik comes and shuts the entry and no one is allowed to go out or else, they are threatened. “It is such a problem. When in need of an ambulance, the ambulance cant even come here. People have been taken on laaris to the highway after frantic convincing that we are not lying. Think about the women who have to have a delivery? It is terrible here. You know? When in Pushpaben’s house, her husband tried to knock a nail to put up the fan, the entire ceiling fell down and her child got hurt on the head. Narenji said he dug out handfuls of sand from the drainage and claims that they haven’t even put the cement masala in the drainholes. The dirty water from the bathrooms flows out into our bedrooms and dirties the entire house. Shareefaben just spent 15,000 rupees redoing the electric lines, the bathroom floors, the walls with seepage in her bedroom. All the gutter lines are already choked up. Our jobs have come to a standstill. Earlier, the hospitals were closer and they would treat us for free. Now they are so far. Coming and going fares eat up more than half our income. They have given Shareefa the topmost floor, even though she mentioned while filling out her form that she was crippled and needed the bottom floor. They even promised her. But no. She now has to carry the dirty water on her head from the tanki nearby and climb up 4 times a day. They haven’t even given us clean drinking water. So many people have fallen ill, people now have to buy even that! They need to buy mineral water from all the way to the station and the women who work in bungalows refill these bottles whenever they go.”
Evidence Of Workmanship
We would get another house, they said. With all the facilities, they said. With water running 24X7, they said. With electricity throughout, they said. With clean drinking water, they said. Our houses shall be alotted first, and after we shift, our older houses would be broken down they said. Only houses which had other places to go would be broken down first they said. One must strive to be as equal as possible, they said. Equal lives, equal money, equal houses, equal opportunities, equal priority, they said. Somewhere cleaner, better, more equal they said.
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