URBAN POOR

Sitting in a tuition centre in Neelankarai, 21-year-old Rani (name changed) stammers as she reads meizhuthu (consonants) in Tamil. As the teacher pronounces the alphabet, the frail girl repeats it after her and tries to memorise it. She immerses herself in the effort, hoping she can shut out her recollections of childhood, filled with the stuff of nightmare for anyone, adult or child. Forced to give up studies at an early age, Rani slogged for more than a decade at a rice mill in Red Hills. “No one including me knew it was slavery. We had accepted it as our…

What does a city look like? Who lives in the city? If you are thinking of the New York skyline, skyscrapers, wide roads, clean streets and cars, you are perhaps not alone. These westernized imaginings are quick to invade our mind whenever there is talk of urbanscape. However, now think consciously of the space that we inhabit, a typical Indian megacity, and our own daily experiences may present themselves as stark contradictions. Having lived in Mumbai, when I think of a city I am taken back to my daily commutes to college, in the local trains. Standing at the doorstep,…

You see them every morning, all across the city. Pourakarmikas, pushing their rickety handcarts, sweeping the streets and collecting the garbage that residents, shops and others have just left by the roadside for them to clear. Bangalore actually needs many more of these unrecognised and overworked workers, who provide a truly essential service, keeping the city clean. But have you ever wondered what does their work mean to them? Is it a choice or a compulsion? Pourakarmikas toil in working conditions that are far from perfect, as numerous reports and studies have shown. Hired by contractors selected by the city…

“If these machines had been brought in before, my children’s papa would not have left them. Now they are not of any use to me, but they will at least be useful for other women. Their men will not die in the sewers. No one should have to suffer the way I do.” So saying, a visibly distressed Rani Kumari became silent. When I first met Rani late last year, she was sitting on the steps at a conference venue in Delhi, where she had come for an event organised by the Safai Karamchari Andolan, a nationwide movement to eradicate…

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,” goes a famous quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.  The verse seems to have impacted M S Paoyaola, a 21-year-old social work student from Madras Christian College, who recently went all out to help a physically and mentally unwell woman on the streets, and came back with a rude awakening of realities on the ground in such situations. On January 26th, around 6.30 pm, Paoyaola, a second year student and a resident of St Thomas Mount was passing by Morison Street in Alandur. Noticing a small…

Sushil was attending 10th standard at the school in his village, when his parents decided to move to a city. They had found seasonal work in a brick kiln there. Sushil’s only option was to move to the kiln site and work alongside his parents. He had given up hopes of completing high school education, when he realised that other child labourers at the kiln were going to a ‘classroom’ located within the site. This learning centre was set up by Aide et Action, an NGO that works for the education of migrant children. Sushil attended classes there, and later,…

Translated by Krishna Kumar வேலைக்கு இடம்பெயர்ந்த ஜார்கண்ட் மாநிலத்தைச் சேர்ந்தவர்களை ‘ரௌடிகள்’ என்றும், வடகிழக்கு மாநிலத்தை சேர்ந்தவர்களை பாலியல் ரீதியாக தாராளமானவர்கள் என்று ஏளனமாகவும், மேற்கு வங்காளத்தில் இருந்து வந்தவர்கள் ‘அழுக்கு’ என்றும் முத்திரை குத்தப்படுகிறார்கள். உள்ளூர் தேயிலைக்/காபி கடைகளில் இம்மாதிரியாக கோணங்களில் சர்வ சாதாரணமாக கிண்டல் கேலி செய்வது நாமெல்லாம் பார்க்க முடியும்,    சென்னை போன்ற நகரங்களுக்கு குடியேறியவர்கள், பொதுவாக இத்தகைய தவறான அபிப்ராயங்களுக்கு ஆட்படுகிறார்கள். ஜே ஜெயராஜனின் 2013 ஆராய்ச்சி கட்டுரையின் படி  சென்னைக்கு குடியேறுபவர்களில் அஸ்ஸாமில் இருந்து 23 சதவீதம், மேற்கு வங்கத்திலிருந்து 14 சதவீதம், பீகாரிலிருந்து  13.7 சதவிகிதம், ஒடிஷாவிலிருந்து 14.6 சதவிகிதம், ஆந்திராவில் இருந்து 9.5 சதவிகிதம் மற்றும் திரிபுராவிலிருந்து 0.3 சதவிகிதம்.ஆனால் கடந்த ஐந்து ஆண்டுகளில் வடக்கு கிழக்கில் இருந்து இடம்பெயர்ந்த மக்களே அதிகரித்து வருகின்றனர். "சென்னையில் உணவு, உற்பத்தி மற்றும் ஆடை துறைகளில் மலிவான கூலிக்கு ஆட்கள் கிடைகாத பிரச்சனைக்கு, வடகிழக்கு…

Hadu Bahera owns a ‘home’ for 12-hours every day. During this time, the 51-year-old loom worker inhabits a six-by-three-feet space in a dingy room on Ved Road in north Surat. His co-worker uses the same space for the other 12 hours – depending on their shifts, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. or the reverse. The occasional ‘holidays’ – when there is a power cut – are days to be dreaded. Nearly 60 workers must then fit into a 500-square feet room at Mahavir Mess, where Bahera is presently space-sharing. The summer months – when temperatures reach 40 degrees Celcius…

[This story is co-authored by Aditya Dipankar, a Mumbai-based musician and designer.]   In Chilla Khadar, an urban village close to Mayur Vihar Phase I, live many families who pull cycle rickshaws, work as domestic helpers, clean up the streets and sell vegetables at the mandi. They survive with the help of generators and tube wells. The government, some residents say, has yet to give them electricity and water. Their children attend makeshift schools in the open or under thatched-roof huts because the government school is far away and hard to reach without a pucca road. Despite their own hardships,  many of them…

State to fund PRR land acquisition, Cabinet discusses pending issues Several issues awaiting the cabinet's approval were finally addressed in a meeting presided over by the Chief Minister on November 19. Minister for Rural Development, Law and Parliamentary affairs, Krishna Byre Gowda, briefed the media on the important decisions taken. Among them was the nod given to execute the Peripheral Ring Road project at a cost of Rs 17,000 crore. Toll fee collection will be a revenue stream for this project. Since there were no agencies ready to fund the land acquisition due to controversies surrounding compensation to farmers, the state…