Voters living on banks of Yamuna seek pucca houses, water, toilets

People of all ages, including children, have to go to the nearby forest to relieve themselves despite the presence of packs of wild dogs, said an area resident.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

A tentative sense of calm prevails over a slum cluster in Yamuna Khadar on the floodplains in north-east Delhi’s Shastri Park. The area residents anticipate a demolition drive soon after the Assembly election results are announced.

“Everyone here believes that our jhuggis haven’t been demolished this winter because of the election. Otherwise, it’s a seasonal phenomenon. But sooner or later, they are bound to come,” says 35-year-old daily wage worker Ram Bahadur, who lives here with his wife and children.

Mr. Bahadur, who hails from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, says he is forced, like many others, to live on the riverbank because it is simply not possible to find a room in a colony in Shastri Park and subsist on a monthly income of less than ₹10,000.

Like his neighbours, Mr. Bahadur arrived in the national capital many years ago (15 in his case) in search of work, settled in Delhi and transferred his vote to the city.

With political parties offering poll sops and making promises to all sections of society, residents of Yamuna Khadar, which falls in Gandhi Nagar constituency, say they will vote for the candidate who promises to provide them with permanent houses, potable water and toilets.

Running for cover

A vital part of living on the riverbank includes running for cover when one’s house is threatened — from the river when it is in spate during the monsoon and from the authorities when the officials arrive for the anti-encroachment drives.

“Everyone here has kept their voter and Aadhaar cards, along with other essential documents and valuables, handy so that when the time comes, one can pack bags and leave at a moment’s notice,” he says.

In April 2022, more than 200 shanties here were demolished here. A year later, the Delhi High Court ordered the residents to vacate the area. The same year, the Yamuna river swelled to a record high, flooding several parts of the Capital and forcing thousands of people to relocate to safer places. As always, those living on the floodplains were the worst hit.

Frequent relocations and living under the open sky have taken a toll on the health of the area’s residents, particularly the children. Mr. Bahadur’s children suffer from pneumonia. The area also lacks a clean water supply, forcing the residents to consume water from tankers and handpumps that are often contaminated.

Sick children

“After the floods, many politicians visited our area and promised relief. But we didn’t receive any relief, nor have we seen any political leader since. Now that the election is approaching, they will come again and click photos with us, even as our children suffer due to their apathy,” says 50-year-old Noor Bahaa.

She adds, “We are tired of living under the threats of demolition and floods. We will now vote for the candidate who provides us pucca houses, potable water, and toilets.”

Pinki (who goes just by her first name), a native of Bihar who got married in Delhi, says she was crushed to find that there were no toilets when she first visited the area.

“Several years have passed since that day, but people of all ages, including children, still go to the nearby forest to relieve themselves despite the presence of packs of wild dogs,” she says.

“Potable water and toilets are the bare minimum that people anywhere can’t live without. Are we asking for the moon?” she adds.

The Gandhi Nagar Assembly seat was held by then Congress’s Delhi Minister (now in the BJP) Arvinder Singh Lovely till 2013. In the 2015 poll, he was defeated by Anil Kumar Bajpai (then with the Aam Aadmi Party), who himself switched to the BJP before the 2020 election and retained the seat. This year, the BJP has replaced Mr. Bajpai with the former Delhi Minister. He is up against AAP’s Naveen Chaudhary and Congress’s Kamal Arora.