Entire families live in just 10 x 12 ft shelters, that are little better than cowsheds. Come morning and men and women queue up to use the toilets of which there are only 50 (20 of them defunct) for the 1,500 families living in zinc sheet huts in what can only be described as inhuman conditions at Ejipura in the heart of the city for the last six years now. There are no roads, drains and or drinking water facilities here.
Once they lived in quarters for the economically weaker sections on this land. But the collape of four buildings, which left five people dead in 10 years, led to their demolition and the government decided to build new quarters for the poor who occupied them. But years have gone by and the people, who are no closer to getting their promised new homes, are being forced to live in nightmarish conditions. “When it rains the zinc sheets fly away and the nearby storm water drain overflows, flooding the area and forcing the residents out of their tiny sheds” says Mr Luvies, president of the Dr Ambedkar Youths’ Social Welfare Association at Ejipura.
The summer brings with it its own problems as the zinc sheets get so hot that the people find it impossible to stay inside the shelters and prefer to sleep in the open. Children fall sick as a result of the heat and have few health facilities to fall back on. “Although we live just a stone’s throw from MG Road and Vidhana Soudha we might as well be invisible,” complains Mr Luvies.
“When everyone else is praying for rain we keep our fingers crossed for it to stop as we spend sleepless nights in knee-deep water in our sheds every monsoon. It takes at least three hours for the water to recede after the rain stops,” says Zareena Begum, one of the unfortunate living here. Sunita Mahendra who was caught under the debris when block number 2 collapsed in 2006 and lost her one-and-a-half old baby Mahalakshmi and her father-in-law, Perumal, in the tragedy, could not retrieve any document like a voter ID and so was not given the title deed to the quarters issued by the BBMP in 2007-08. Now she is afraid she will not be given a flat and will have to find somewhere else to live although she has a genuine right to be here.
(with inputs from Smriti Antony)