In the heart of the bureaucratic hub that houses several Government officials, boasts of neat highrises and a clean environment, lay clusters that reflect a completely opposite image. Since 25 years, a small jhuggi jhopdi cluster in RK Puram’s Sector 7 has been abode to hundreds of families. But contrary to the image that the locale has, this hovel struggles with scanty water supply, expensive electricity and no toilets. The residents of the locality still take to roads, empty yards, dark corners and public streets as a proxy to lavatories and skip days without proper sanitation in order to save water for drinking.
Though the slum stands out significantly in the area, it has come into the public eye more knowingly after the December 16 gang-rape. Four of the six accused in the incident belonged to this slum. However, the only complaint of people living here after that incident is that in spite of knowing that most people in this area live under pathetic conditions and are mainly uneducated, the Government has done nothing to improve their lifestyle. Sanitation is a major issue in this slum. Garbage disposal is a problem, but the lack of support from the Municipal Corporation is the main reason for the dirt. “Earlier people used to come and supervise the cleaning of the area, but now there is no one. We clean as much as we can but we are a thousand families living in a small cluster, so there is bound to be dirt,” added Gajna Devi, a house wife of the basti.
Even the facilities provided to the slum come at a heavy cost. Electricity is charged to the people as per their meter usage, contrary to a lot of clusters in high-
profile areas that pay a fixed monthly charge of Rs175. Thus, instances of the meter being misread or somebody from outside using their electricity are common here. According to a resident Sajjat Ali, there are times when the electricity bill crosses Rs2,000.