No water, no electricity, no homes – Delhi government fails to rehabilitate its slum-dwellers

In 2013, 32 slum clusters in Delhi were chosen for rehabilitation during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure as Chief Minister, and Rs 68,000 was collected from slum dwellers who were found eligible. Dwellers were given certificates which had the number of their allocated flat, and many of them even made trips to see their new home.

But only eight slum clusters were rehabilitated during Dikshit’s tenure.

After Kejriwal took office in 2015, the government changed the slum policy to include more people and passed Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015.  “When the allocation was made in 2013, only 47% of slum dwellers were eligible, but under the 2015 policy, about 85% of dwellers will be eligible for relocation,” said VK Jain, CEO of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), the implementing agency.

But slum dwellers have to go through the process once again and will be given a different flat, and this is set to take more time. Of the 4010 families who had paid for the government flats in 2013, 983 have been rehabilitated in the past four years, and 3027 are yet to be relocated, according to DUSIB.

Pehalas Sahani, a 65-year-old slum dweller, said he had been happy to borrow Rs 68,000 from a money lender to pay for a new flat for which the government had selected him in 2013. But four years and countless trips to government offices later, the flat still remains a dream for the 65-year-old – and Sahani’s is not a lone case.

Across 19 slum clusters in Delhi, 3000 families who paid Rs 68,000 for government flats in 2013 are yet to get their promised flats.  “I haven’t got my flat, but I have paid more money than what I had borrowed only as interest”, Sahani said, standing outside a small eatery he runs in Dhobi Ghat, a slum in Delhi. In Dhobi Ghat alone, about 600 families who paid the government, many borrowing from money lenders, are waiting to be relocated.

According to Jain, “Many slum clusters have been rehabilitated and everyone who paid money four years ago will get their flats”.

But, Jain said, he couldn’t give a deadline for the rehabilitation process.

Dwellers’ woes

The worries of living in a slum vary in Dhobi Ghat.

Stroking her one-year-old granddaughter’s shaved head, 66-year-old Bimala said, “She has been ill for the last two weeks and we had to shave her head.” Next to where Bimala stood with one-year-old Yashika was a square structure, made of long sticks at four corners, and old clothes wrapped around it – their toilet.

In the absence of a sewage system, waste from the makeshift toilet goes into a drain that runs next to it. The drain is lined with such makeshift toilets. Two buckets of water from a tanker are kept outside the toilet as there is no water connection in the slum. According to Bimala, “The place is so dirty that people here are bound to fall sick”. Most of the houses are one-roomed, asbestos-roofed, and crudely built. The slum doesn’t have electricity, and it is extremely hot inside the houses during summer.

Darma Devi, mother of two school-going girls is troubled about the slum not having toilets. “How do you expect girls to grow up in a place where there are no toilets?”, she asked.

Dharmveer, 26, a post graduate from Dhobi Ghat told Newslaundry that without electricity it is hard for students to study and he had to struggle a lot. “During the monsoon, dirty water gushes into my house, and the streets are flooded with filth”, Sahani complained.

For slum dwellers, the government flat was a ticket out of these horrors.

When Newslaundry visited Kidwai Nagar East Camp, the story was no different – about 150 families here had paid the government for rehabilitation in 2013. “Everything was completed and we only had to get the keys”, Padma Arora, President of the Camp said.

Caught in red tape

The Delhi government is yet to pass the Lieutenant Governor’s recommendations to the new slum policy, which has only helped delay the rehabilitation. “We are expecting to get the cabinet approval very soon”, a DUSIB official said. To compound matters, the land on which slums are situated are owned by different agencies such as the municipal corporations, railways, and defence. Getting these authorities to clear paperwork or even cooperate is a difficult task, which is another factor delaying the process.

VK Jain said, “In slum clusters where land owning agencies are cooperating, we can complete the process within three-four months, once we get the cabinet approval. But we can’t give a timeframe in slums were the land-owning agencies are not cooperating”.

Many land-owning agencies like defence authorities, and Delhi police have not been cooperative according to a senior DUSIB official. “We had sent letters to defence authorities multiple times and now we have sent them a final notice asking whether they’re interested or not,” the official said. “We are yet to receive a reply.”

Jain said they’ll raise the issue with the Principal Secretary or Lieutenant Governor if land-owning agencies do not cooperate.

An unending struggle

Amit, a 25-year-old, is among a group that has gathered at Dhobi Ghat – one of the slums on land belonging to defence authorities. He opens a blue file and flips through the pages revealing letters to the Chief Minister, state electricity board, DUSIB and even the Prime Minister’s Office.

The name on the front of the file reads “Dhobi Ghat Jhuggi-Jhopri Sangathan” – a group fighting on behalf of about 600 families who had paid the government. According to Amit, “We’ve written to everyone, but no one wants to listen to our problems”.

By 7pm, the first of the five generators that power the slum from 7–10 pm, coughed to life. These generators, run by slum dwellers, allow the population of around 8,000 to use one CFL light for three hours a day, at Rs 200 a month.

“Sitting here, do you feel you’re in Delhi?”, asked Sunil, a 19-year-old, who is to join college this year. “Now, even villages have water connection, electricity and toilets.” In the dim light of CFLs, you could see swamps of mosquitoes as people pulled out folding beds in front of their shacks.

“It’s too hot to sleep inside”, a slum dweller said. As this correspondent prepared to leave, Bimala who was holding the allocation certificate of her flat ‘169 A’ in her hand, said helplessly, “At least tell them to give us electricity”.

These are those corners and edges of the Capital that few speak of, least of all the politicians. Because rarely, if ever, do these slum dwellers find a voice in mainstream media or elsewhere, relegated as they are to living in slums while holding on to a feeble promise of a more civilised existence.