Ravinder Kumar, 29, has been looking for a bride for the past three years. With each passing day, his hope to find a life partner deflates a little more. This is because all the families seeking a match for their girls give only one reason for not even considering the matrimonial alliance — the Kumar family lives in Bhalswa, near a huge mountain of garbage.
The Bhalswa landfill in northwest Delhi has become a bane not just for Mr. Kumar but for several other young men like him, who aren’t able to find brides because no family is ready to send their daughter to a place that is full of filth and stinks all the year round.
Mr. Kumar, who works in a nearby plastic factory, says a few weeks ago, a prospective bride’s family from Samaypur Badli came to meet him. Just as they were leaving, the family found a drift of pigs at the doorstep. Not surprisingly, Mr. Kumar was left with another rejection.
For a long time now, residents of Bhalswa have been deprived of a good night’s sleep due to skin allergies and respiratory infections. But another concern troubling most families is getting judged and shamed for living near a ‘khatta’ (landfill).
According to a senior official at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the landfill is spread across 78 acres and is 62 metres tall. “We are in the process of bio-mining approximately 62 lakh metric tonne legacy waste at Bhalswa dumpsite,” the official added.
Families left hopeless
“They tell us we live in filth,” said 25-year-old Brijendra Rathore, whose family has been looking for a bride for him for the past four years now.
Mr. Rathore works as an engineer at a private company in Adarsh Nagar. He sees no hope of getting married any time soon. “Nobody wants to send their daughter here,” said his mother Suneeta Rathore. Over the years, she has reached out to families from Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Pushta Chowki, and Nangloi, for an alliance. “The response is always quick and demeaning,” she said.
“They do not even give us time to respond. Many families return without even entering our house,” said Ms. Rathore, who feels humiliated because of where she lives.
Mala Devi, 58, no longer feels shocked when her son’s marriage proposals get rejected. “I have learnt to accept it as our fate,” she said.
Ms. Mala adds, “I know they will say turn down the proposal and shame us for living here. What hurts me is that I cannot do anything to improve our situation.”
Mother of four sons, Ms. Mala succeeded in finding a daughter-in-law for her eldest son. “My son’s wife is from Samaypur Badli. But after the marriage, she chose to leave our house with my son. I cannot interfere in her life; she said she could not survive in this filth,” Ms. Mala said.
Many families of Bhalswa now search for daughters-in-law in other cities, just in case they are not aware of the ground realities of Bhalswa. Some such women, who came to this place from faraway places, can’t stop thinking of the day they escape Bhalswa.
Can’t wait to leave
Sharing her woes, Chanda Devi, 27, said before getting married to an inhabitant of Bhalswa, she had no idea about what the place would be like. “I got married in 2013. In my village Azamgarh, everybody thinks getting married in Delhi is a big thing. I too was excited dreaming of a better life, including a decent house and work opportunities. But I was shocked when I came here. I live near a junkyard. Nobody back home can imagine the living conditions here,” Ms. Chanda said.
She struggles to sleep at night because she lives right next to the landfill. Whenever a fire breaks out at the site, it turns the air toxic and she has breathing issues. “I think about leaving this place every night, but my family has financial constraints. It may take us another 30-40 years to find a better life,” Ms. Chanda said.
