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New Delhi: The Public Works Department (PWD) residents have been given Barapullah slum near Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Notice to leave the area under the drive to remove encroachment. The slum dwellers, who are mostly migrant daily wage earners, are distressed with no place to go.
On March 16, the authorities sent eviction notices to around 500 people in 60 slums. Slum dwellers who came to Delhi from West Bengal, Rajasthan and Bihar have been asked to vacate the area before March 20.
Kusum Desi, 40, who lost her husband during the second Covid wave, lives in a slum with her two children aged 4 and 3 and her disabled mother. After calling the slum their home for 18 years, the eviction notice from the area came as a major blow to them. “A few days back, some officials came and told us that we have to leave this place and were given a few days’ time to do so. I don’t know where to take my young children and my old mother now,” He said. Worried.
Savita Devi, a resident of Bihar, is worried about her daughter’s education. She said that out of her three children, she could only send the youngest to school to get a proper education. However, due to the eviction notice, she too would have to leave the school, feared Savita. The prospect of their education being disrupted has many other children in the Barapullah slum worried. He said he was not sure whether he would be able to take admission in other schools.
Ruman Singh, 17, said, “If we don’t even have a roof over our heads, how can we imagine being able to go to school? My sister recently appeared for her Class V final exams, but now we might Her name was taken off the list because we have to leave the area. I hope we find a school for her later so she can get an education unlike me.”
Another area resident, 25-year-old Sunil Manjhi, a Bihar native who works as a contractual employee in the municipal corporation, said several NGOs have over the years assisted families in educating children in the basti . Manjhi, a father of two, said, “But if we have to move out of this area, the children will be most affected by the displacement.” “In similar situations, we have seen children being forced to beg on the streets.”
Fearing forced eviction, many families have started packing their belongings. “We have been living here for the last 17 years and have accumulated a lot. I don’t know where to take it all and how to live on the streets,” said a dejected resident.
When contacted, a senior PWD official refused to comment on the matter, saying he was not aware of the issue.
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