Residents of Ranchi's Islam Nagar slum struggle to make ends meet years after losing homes in demolition drive

Ranchi: Samina Khatoon has three worries — avoiding the leaking roof while sleeping, arranging for food to survive, and praying for a miracle which cures her husband Mohammed Jibrail. 65-year-old Jibrail suffers from a liver ulcer and spends his days lying on the bed in his makeshift 8X8 feet house at Islam Nagar. The estimate provided by the hospital to cure his illness is Rs. 5 lakh. Jibrail used to live with his wife and six children in a three-room kutcha house at Islam Nagar before it was demolished in an anti-encroachment drive by the district administration in 2011. After the demolition, Jibrail’s children went to live elsewhere, leaving him and his wife behind. Having no place to stay, the old couple built a makeshift house using wooden planks and flex hoardings where their house once stood, and tried to get on with their life by resuming their work of selling firewood. However, things worsened for the old couple when Jibrail was diagnosed with an ulcer. Unable to bear the treatment expenses, Jibrail now survives on painkillers and homeopathy medicine. “We do not have any source of income and survive on the food given to us by neighbours. I do worry about my husband’s health, but a major concern right now is to ensure that the roof does not leak as we sleep,” Khatoon said. [caption id=“attachment_4932261” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Mohammed Jibrail spends his days on the bed, as due to the ulcer he cannot move much. Image: Kelly Kislaya[/caption] Jibrail and his wife are among the 1,275 families who are said to have lost their houses in an anti-encroachment drive at Islam Nagar on 6 April, 2011. While some families who could afford moving out left the place, most of them, with nowhere to go, made makeshift tents where their houses once stood. With Independence Day around the corner, 70-year-old Abdul Gaffar and his son can be seen sitting outside his tent, making the tricolored flags. “We have been living here for generations and suddenly, the roof over our head was snatched away. Having nowhere to go, we have been living like this for the last seven years,” he said. Gaffar added, “All of us here have always been poor, and the major sources of income for us are pulling rickshaws or working as labourers. But earlier, at least we had a house to come back to, which has now been pulled down by the administration.” Piled with garbage and overflowing with drains, Islam Nagar is situated at a distance of barely 4 kilometres from the main road of the state capital. Its situation makes a mockery of the award of ‘best performing state’ given to Jharkhand in the Swachh Survekshan, 2018. Abda Khatoon, one of the displaced persons, said, “We live in the midst of garbage. There is no road which leads up to our houses and during the rain, children have to skip schools because they are unable to cross the overflowing drains. If only the government were to give us one road to walk on, we would be grateful.” Earlier, the area had community toilets and a park which was constructed by Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, Parimal Nathwani. However, they were demolished along with the houses during the anti-encroachment drive. Now, despite the Ranchi municipal area being declared open defecation free, Islam Nagar does not have a single toilet and people are forced to defecate in open. “Some of us have used flexes of hoardings to cover small areas and use them as bathrooms for girls and women,” Khatoon said. Drinking water is another major concern in the area, as all the families depend on the sole hand pump, which has now started releasing ‘red water’. Mohammed Parwez, a resident said, “We have no option but to drink the dirty water. Earlier, we had a pipeline connection from the nearby tank, but it was uprooted during the anti-encroachment drive.” The extremely unhygienic conditions have led to an outbreak of what locals call ‘langda bukhaar’ . Roshan Ara’s two sons, 18 and 12 years old, suffer from the above-mentioned disorder, as do around a dozen other people in the area. Ara said, “We don’t know what this sickness is, but it leads to tremendous pain in the joints along with high fever. Those suffering from it are unable to walk, and so we call it ‘langda bukhar’.” She added, “The outbreak began around a month ago, and many families are suffering from it.” How it all started The land on which Islam Nagar is located was acquired by the government in the name of Indian School of Science in 1959. Here, an Industrial Training Institute, a women’s polytechnic college and a boys’ hostel were to be constructed, but the land remained vacant for years. After a communal riot broke out in the city in 1967, many people came and settled on the vacant land, to which the government did not object. Gradually, the number of residents increased and soon, they were provided with several government facilities like water connections, electricity, ration cards and a community hall. Mohammed Shakil, who has been the president of Humdard Committee (a local social group) for the last 40 years, said, “All these years, the government did not bother about this land. It was only on 29 March, 2011 that a notice was sent to the residents here, giving them a day’s time to vacate the land, claiming it to be encroached.” When MP Parimal Nathwani, who had worked towards the welfare of the residents of Islam Nagar, was informed about the notice, he helped Shakil to file a petition in the Supreme Court to get a stay order. “I got the stay order on 6 April, but by the time I was able to send it to the district administration, many houses were already demolished,” Shakil said. After the demolition, Shakil filed a petition in the Jharkhand High Court for compensation for the displaced persons. The high court directed the state government to provide houses for them within 13 months. The district administration directed the displaced families to submit documents for verification, so that beneficiaries could be identified. But out of the 1275 families which applied, only 444 were verified as beneficiaries. When the displaced people were not provided shelter by the government until 2016, Shakil filed an amendment petition with the high court and after direction from the court, the state government decided to give the beneficiaries houses at Madhukam area of Ranchi. Unfortunately, the plan did not work out as the local residents of Madhukam protested against the residents of Islam Nagar moving to the area. Later, it was decided that the residents would be rehabilitated back at the place from where they were uprooted, and an area of 6.9 acres was allotted for the construction of housing units. The present situation On 10 July this year, the state cabinet approved Rs 33.04 crore for construction of housing units at Islam Nagar. It was also decided that these housing units will be given to beneficiaries for free, rather than the earlier plan of charging Rs.50,000 per family. Shakil said, “We are thankful to the government for having allocated the houses for free. I hope the construction work finishes soon, and at least some of the displaced people get a roof on their heads.” State urban development secretary Ajoy Kumar Singh said that out of the 444 beneficiaries who were identified by the district administration in 2011, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation has further identified only 247 families which live at Islam Nagar. “At present, 252 housing units are being constructed at Islam Nagar by the Jharkhand Urban Infrastructure Development Company (JUIDCO) which will be completed in the next six to eight months. However, we can provide flats to up to 444 families if they turn up,” he said. Earlier, when Singh was informed about the lack of toilets and drinking water facilities in Islam Nagar area, he directed officials to install ready-to-fix toilets and temporary water connections. On the issue of housing facilities to 831 families which did not make it to the first list of beneficiaries, the secretary said, “They will be given houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna. No one will remain homeless.” However, despite the construction having started, the residents do not believe that they would get the houses. Mohammed Imran, a resident said, “We have been told hundreds of times that we will get houses, but nothing has happened till date. Now, until we actually move into the houses, we will not believe that we are really getting something.” The author is a member of The NewsCart, a Bengaluru-based media startup.