At the time of this issue of Humanscape going to press, we are still counting the number of lives lost to the monstrous tsunami waves. The numbers are daunting – 24,000 and rising. This has been identified as the worst tragedy ever, a reminder of the humbling effect of Nature’s wrath.
Nearer home in Mumbai, we have seen the wrath of another kind of monster. In its effort to spruce up the city, the Deshmukh government has gone all out demolishing and destroying “illegal” shanties in the city. A local daily reported 7,375 structures fell to bulldozers in four days. An extreme conservative estimate of eight people being housed in each structure makes that 59,000 people rendered homeless. In four days. All in the drive to transform Mumbai to look like Shanghai. 
Now, we are well aware that our slums and shanties are the tail end of a larger, complex and desperate chain of circumstances. It is estimated that 1,200 people come to Mumbai everyday, from other towns and villages, seeking livelihood, a majority of whom have insecure prospects of finding both, work and a place to stay. The blasé reaction is, “Why do they come? Why don’t they just go back to where they were farming and had an assured home and hearth?” In this issue of Humanscape, we look at some of the reasons why they come to the squalor of cities like Mumbai, and will not go back.
Devinder Sharma has succinctly rounded up the implications of international trade agreements on developing nations and small farmers. Needless to say, the consequences have proved to be disastrous, especially for the marginalised among the poor – women, the Dalit and the tribal population. Driven out of their homes and occupations, often at the brink of starvation, as Parshuram Ray finds among the areca nut farmers of Karnataka, they have no options but to head towards cities like Mumbai in search of uncertain livelihoods. Virendar S Khatana and Jagadish Pradhan see a replay of the conditions among the paddy farmers of Orissa. Confirming what Angana Chatterjee finds in Kashipur, Pankaj Gupta’s review of The Source of Life for Sale, shows us why we end up this way. Why the slums in Mumbai (and numerous other cities and towns) will only grow in geometric progression.
Once in the city, the migrants huddle together in shabby, ill-lit, ill-ventilated structures in inhuman and unsanitary conditions. These structures have a curious identity – they are built on government land, which is restricted against private use, making the shanties illegal. On the other hand, they exist at the mercy of slumlords, in collusion with the police, politicians (for whom they form the all-essential vote bank) and the city’s municipal corporation, giving them legitimacy on an illegitimate turf. The lament of a young migrant labourer, rendered homeless, is justified: why did I vote for the Congress if they cannot halt the demolition of my home? That is all that is important to me.
Slums are the manifestation of a breakdown of the highest order – the evidence of an administration that has neither been able to secure pre-existing livelihoods, nor assure the basic human right to shelter and life-services. For those at the receiving end, it is like being hit by successive, devastating and uncontrollable waves – only this time it is not the unpredictable wrath of Nature.
Join us in our effort to work towards a happy, healthy, secure and peaceful year ahead, for all.
