Lack of toilets, open defecation and scarcity of water are among the issues those living in Jailerwala Bagh slum in North-West Delhi have been facing for years now. However, things may change for the better with work on their rehabilitation set to start soon. A new scheme has been devised, which will provide them houses spread over 300 square feet each in multi-storeyed buildings with lifts.
At the moment, the slum cluster can largely be termed a settlement with mounds of human and household waste. The air is thick with stench, flies and mosquitoes. Open drains with stagnant polluted water run between the jhuggies . Women and men, who have been surveyed for flat allotment once the redevelopment starts, said they want better living standards.
The state of affairs is such that for the nearly 10,000 people living here, there is just one 22-seater toilet complex. Only once in one or two months, an MCD van comes to collect garbage. Water logging and kuccha roads are the other hassles.
Jailerwala Bagh is a slum in Ashok Vihar area in the Wazirpur Assembly constituency. It is inhabited by over 10,000 people who work as labourers, maids, rickshaw-pullers and scrap collectors.
Launched in February 2009, the Jailerwala Bagh rehabilitation project for in-situ development of 1,675 flats failed to take off. The rehabilitation project, along with that of Kathputli Colony in Karol Bagh, was to be an example of the urban renewal scheme. The foundation stone for the project was laid in 2009, but work failed to take off.
Earlier this month, after nearly six years, the bhoomi pujan was performed at the site and work is now expected to start during Navratras.
At the time of its conception, like Kathputli Colony, the Jailerwala Bagh slum was also to be redeveloped on a public-private-partnership model. However, in October 2011, the then Minister of Urban Development and the then area MP Kapil Sibal met to discuss the issue and decided that the DDA had enough resources to take up the project on its own. It was then decided that the DDA will take necessary action for change of land use.
“But certain sections in the DDA were of the view that the area could be developed for recreational purposes. The scheme was then left in abeyance,” said former MLA from Wazirpur constituency Hari Shankar Gupta.
“The project could not take off due to vested interests who thought it proper to have a recreational park here and were unmindful of the fact that these people deserve better living standards so that their children could have a better future. They go to schools, but back home they have to have a decent life to become better citizens,” said Mr. Gupta.
Praising Mr. Gupta for his efforts, slum resident Arvind Kumar Gautam said: “We need better toilet facilities. This is such a vast piece of land. We should put it to better use rather then defecate in open.”
The residents are happy that they do no have to be displaced under the scheme since there is a vast open area around the slum cluster, where redevelopment work will take place.
Women at the site said the major concerns were cleanliness and toilets. Shivnath, a resident, said there was no facility for senior citizens as life gets tough for them in such a mess.
