As the local authorities woke up from deep slumber to make Chandigarh a slum free city, thousands who are settled in informal settlements will be at the receiving end. More urban poor of the City Beautiful will be left houseless and lose their jobs...”
Two decades ago, Sonu, came to Chandigarh as a 15 years old boy from Uttar Pradesh in search of work. When getting a stable job opportunity seemed a far off dream, he became rickshaw puller and built a tin-sheet shanty in colony number 4, the only place which offered an affordable shelter to him. Today, as he lives in 10X10 ft shanty, the fear of forced eviction is written all over his face.
After the demolition of colony number 5, the slum dwellers in other colonies of Chandigarh are living in a constant fear of forced eviction and becoming homeless.
Sonu earns Rs80-120 every day and lives with a family of six, a wife, three daughters and a son. “After the local authorities razed colony number 5 to the ground, the inhabitants of colony number 4 are afraid, as in case our houses are demolished, we will have no place to go. life is a nightmare for inhabitants as we are afraid that bulldozers might come any time to erase our homes.”
Sadly, there are thousands who share the same tale of woes and fear like Sonu. The City Beautiful has more than 10 illegal colonies which covers over 60 acres of land collectively. After the demolition of colony number 5, the colony number 4 which is in Industrial Area Phase I is now the biggest slum among the other existing colonies.
The administration has begun the process of allotting flats to rehabilitate the slum dwellers of colony number 4 and once it is done, the colony number 4 will face the same fate as of colony number 5. At present, the colony number 4 is a home to more than 5,000 families.
Reema, a mother of three (two sons and an infant daughter) is putting on a brave face as she does not want her children to feel threatened of the foreseen demolition. She is at a loss of words as we mention demolition of colony number 5. “My one room house was built 20 years back and I was not told that this is an illegal settlement,” she shares while sitting with her children in her shack. She knows that her family may have to bear the brunt for living in an informal settlement and says we would never leave our house till the administration gives us a shelter to survive.
In past three decades, the growing slum colonies have gone unchecked by the local authorities and migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala among other places have settled in informal settlements across the cities.
As per Census 2011, the city is a house to total of 95,135 slum population.
Slums here are the austere contrast from the ‘City Beautiful’. All slum colonies suffer due to dilapidated conditions, unclean water, dirty toilets, kundi electricity connections. Earning Rs2,000-Rs7,000 per month, the men here work as hawkers, labourers, helpers, rickshaw-pullers, hawkers and roadside vendors while the women and children, often, work as domestic helpers in the houses.
Though they are living in an appalled conditions and constant fear of eviction, these slum dwellers still believe it is far better to stay here rather than going back to their native States.
(This is the last part of a series on the human tragedy in the wake of the demolition of the biggest slum cluster of Chandigarh and the tragedy awaiting slums of the city)