At the end of my lane in Bandra,
a large family lives on the footpath. It’s a joint family that includes
couples, senior members, children and even a dog. They also have a large
mosquito net that is spread at night to protect the young ones from mosquito
bite from the gutters below them. During the day, the clothes are washed (don’t
know that from where they get water to wash the clothes and themselves) but the
clothes are dried across cloth-line that connects lamppost and a tree. Some
evenings, food is cooked in large vessels on open fire burning wood and twigs.
There is no shelter though. They have been living like this since last few
years but nobody is able to vacate them…not even police..
But if some drunk driver bangs
into them, they will make sure that he is beaten to death. Whenever there are
accidents, big group of people gather and try to take the law into their own
hands. That is the reason why there are more hit-and-run cases. I am not
sympathizing with drunk drivers but I think footpath dwellers should not be
allowed and Police should take full responsibility of ousting them off
streets…but some of the policemen are so corrupt that they will take bribes
from street dwellers/hawkers to turn their attention elsewhere…Sometimes the
action is taken when one complains, and they (footpath dwellers) disappear but
after few days they are back.
The plight of pavement dwellers
has highlighted after twelve years now that Mr. Salman Khan has been punished with
prison term for 5years for drunk driving and driving over the sleeping people
killing one and injuring four. During the last twelve years, the pavement
dwellers have increased ten fold with police and BMC collecting their bribes for
turning a blind eye. Citizens complain of dirt, disease, hooligans, drug
peddling and discomfort but they are powerless.
People have no idea as to how
they can help keep the city clean. There are many NGOs in Mumbai who have taken
up the task of educating their children and teaching them some skills. They
even provide them food and stationary but they cannot give them shelter nor are
they able to relocate them.
But why should NGOs take the full
responsibility? Government should be responsible for relocating them. I am sure
they are paid well. The BMC is the richest civic body in India with annual
budget of over Rs40000crores, most of which never spent but stored away in huge
fixed deposits. When are they going to use those fixed deposits?
There is enough money to relocate
the pavement dwellers to proper shelters. System has to be improved. It is
often observed that when people are provided shelter, they rent out their house
and are back on streets. There should be some law to prevent such thing from
happening. Every ward has their responsibility therefore a cooperator should be
aware of every citizen in his area and he should be held accountable for all
the activities in his area.
Also the school and the colleges
in the area should be given the responsibility of checking that the environment
in their area is kept clean. Students can be held responsible for checking that
street bins are kept clean, lamp posts have proper lighting, supervise the
person in charge of cleanliness, check that footpaths are in good condition
with no broken tiles, manholes are properly covered and they should plant and
adopt more trees. There should be a civic project in their syllabus that gives
them a brownie point for the social responsibility carried out effectively.
One person cannot bring the
change. Unity can. Quality of life is our birthright but we have to put in
effort too. A sense of responsibility has to be inculcated from early
childhood. We can live comfortably in a clean society. Everybody can.
