URBAN POOR

This article is part of a special series: Air Quality in our Cities If you were to go walking in Nagavarpalya area in the city, and take the inner by-lanes ahead of Gopalan Mall, you would come upon a sprawling settlement, home primarily to migrant workers from Northern Karnataka. They stay in small makeshift structures that are covered with blue tarpaulin sheets. Such settlements are present in several parts of the city, and they are usually devoid of basic facilities of sanitation, adequate supply of water, electricity etc. "If the migrant workers are staying with their families, they usually cook inside…

“We live in a gated community in Velachery. Corporation workers came door to door to distribute the forms to enlist people who are entitled to the Rs 2000 that they are giving out. They asked for ration card, voter ID or Aadhaar along with bank details. I refused as the scheme is clearly meant for people below the poverty line," said Adi Sankaran, a bank employee. But his is just one of the many accounts of similarly affluent or well to do neighbourhoods and enclaves in the city being approached by government workers. A scheme for BPL families An announcement…

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…