My first fact-finding mission: Ravidas Camp slum, Akshardham

On the 25th September 2011, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) issued a 2-day notice to the 300 jhuggie owners (occupants of the individual slum homes) informing them that they intended to demolish what had been their homes for the past 20-25 years, to make way for a drainage nala.

 The DDA began demolishing an adjacent Gurdwara, but stopped when a complaint to the police was made. Following this complaint, HRLN were made aware of the imminent threat of demolition and became involved. The jhuggie owners are entitled under Indian case law to be re-housed if they can demonstrate they have lived in one specific jhuggie prior to 1990. There is an alternative system that provides varying degrees of assistance depending on the date of the documentation the resident provides.

The DDA have a reputation for failing to carry out any of the appropriate surveys which are required to facilitate the process of re-housing jhuggie owners and their families. Amiy (a trainee lawyer at HRLN) and I embarked on our first fact-finding mission on Saturday 1^st October at 7am. We spoke to the leader of the Ravidas Camp who showed us around the parts of the slum that had already been demolished and explained the red arrows dotted around the slum were  made by employees of the DDA marking their demolition lines.

Amiy and I collected documentation from every jhuggie owner who had any form of ID linking their arrival in the slum to their jhuggie number (house number). The most common types of ID they had were BPL cards, Ration cards VP Singh cards and Voter ID cards. I also collected information from each jhuggie owner relating to the number of occupants in each jhuggie, the year they moved to the Ravidas Camp slum, the number of children under 10 in their jhuggie and any other relevant special circumstances such as a pregnant occupant in their jhuggie, a family member who is suffering from mental health issues or any occupants who are terminally ill.

There was a slight delay whilst the adults from each jhuggie went to the high street to get their documents photocopied. I took this opportunity to speak to the children living in the slum. They were a  playful bunch of children and they found my broken Hindi hilarious. 

Armed with the information we had collected from the occupants of Ravidas Camp, HRLN successfully obtained a stay on the demolition until the process of relocating the jhuggie owners had been satisfactorily completed. The judge ordered the DDA to provide a plan for how they would go about completing a survey and what sort of rehabilitation they thought the residents were eligible for. The Judge made an offhand comment to the effect of "you can't come along and demolish these jhuggies and then do a survey afterwards to determine if they are eligible for rehabilitation 4 years later - these things have to happen together”. This comment is a positive step forward in the struggle between the DDA and jhuggie owners across Delhi, as they not only have the right to be relocated but now have the support of Delhi High Court who are finally recognising and implementing their rights.