Demon is Coming

It was a hot sunny day. People could be seen rushing to their destinations. I along with a friend of mine set out to meet a person who was displaced from his/her house as a consequence of some development activities in any part of the city of Ahmedabad. We were passing through the Subhash Bridge on Sabarmati river, when my eyes caught a group of people standing near few temporary structures, replicating mini tents constructed with torn clothes and plastic sheets, by the side of the road (on the footpath). They were probably sharing some lighter moments. I asked my friend to stop the vehicle. By the time our vehicle stopped, we had moved nearly 100m ahead of them. After parking the vehicle on the footpath, we moved towards them. The moment they saw us coming towards them, the smile vanished from their faces. I could overhear one of them saying, “Demon is coming”. I did not ask anything immediately. I stood there looking around and then focused my eye on one person. No one was saying anything. At last, I decided to break silence and introduced myself. They reacted as if they had never heard of either of the institutes and probably they had not! I told them that we wanted to make a story based on their life to understand the implication of government policies and bring out governance issues. They completely misunderstood us and thought that we are either from the media or from some government body who had come to help them and surrounded us with lot of hope and expectations. The smile resurfaced as they realized that we are not the demolition crew known as ‘demon’ in their slang.

Mrs. Vinu Ben attempted to make a conversation. However, she did not say anything apart from moving her lips and making some facial expressions. Then, I look the lead and reintroduced myself and the purpose for which I was there. She agreed for a conversation, excerpts of which are provided below.

She said, “I have one son and three daughters. I moved to Ahmedabad seven years back. Before that, I used to stay on the road side in Vadaj”. She recollected that she got married to Mr. Dinesh Bhai around fifteen years back. A few years after her marriage, her husband and brothers split and they moved to Vadaj. They had a small house by the side of one of the main roads in Vadaj.

Seven years back, their house was demolished for widening the road. They were asked to move, however they claim that they did not get any compensation from the government. When enquired about benefits either monitory or in kind from the government for demolising the house, the answer came in negative. They moved to Ahmedabad with an expectation to earn better and manage meal twice a day. In her own words, she said, “Vadaj was not providing us enough earnings to manage even one meal a day. With the family increasing from two persons to three and to four, my husband was the only person who could go out to work. I was not able to work for few months while carrying a baby as well as till a few months after the delivery. This made our life even miserable as the number of earning persons reduced from two one.” After a pause she said, “So we migrated to Ahmedabad city”. The pain was evident on her face while she was putting her past together.

In Ahmedabad, they first stayed on city roads. This allowed both the husband and the wife to work. Wife could go to nearby houses to earn wage whereas husband could sell vegetables and other stuff on the road side. However, he was tortured/harassed by the city policy and the traffic police on most of the days for selling on the road side. He had to pay a bribe up to Rs 10 which was a large sum for him. Sometime local dadas also used to harass and ask for hufta. They used to sleep on the road side in a temporary tent constructed with torn cloths and plastic sheets.

“Life was moving on”, said Mrs. Vinu Ben with a smile and content. One fine day, the police came early morning and asked them to move away as some new construction had to start in the area. The road was to be widened and a multi storied building was getting constructed across the road. The so called aesthetics demanded their removal. They were given two days time to move away.

The history repeated in Ahmedabad quite frequently and they had to move once again. They had no clue as to where should they settle. Mrs. Vinu Ben was visibly distressed and uttered, “Those demons came and dragged us out of our tent and threw whatever we possess in a couple of minutes and we couldn’t do anything”. Mrs. Vinu Ben referred to the development authorities/policeman/demolition crew as ‘Demon’ which for them stood for ‘demolition crew'. In literal terms also, the demolition crew were demons in their life.

They moved near Sabarmati river and decided to live by the road side. She said.” This place is better as we could get water from the river”. The quality of water was never a question for them. She continued, “We don’t have to worry about sanitation as much as we were worried about it while staying by the city road side. We can use the river bank now”. So they settled near Subhash bridge. However, she faced higher pollution (air and noise) and the family (with kids) became more vulnerable to high speed moving traffic.

Dinesh Bhai used to go for work early morning and would come back very late in the evening. The work could be anything from selling vegetables to carrying goods on his thela. If any construction work going on, he would even go there for work so that he could get better wage. They had four kids: one boy and three girls. All of them were young and the difference between the eldest and the youngest was little over five years. Mr. Dinesh Bhai used to earn Rs. 40 to Rs. 60 per day after a struggle that used to start at 7 AM and get over by 10 PM. Three meals a day was a distant dream for them. They used to have normally one meal a day in the night. In case of no earning on a given day, they would go begging so that they can have food at least once. I asked Mrs. Vinu Ben, “Why don’t you also work as you used to when you were in the city”. She said, “Kids are small and they can not stay near this fast moving traffic alone. Some times, kids get lost also”. She feared that some mafia smuggles them to sell for petty amount to people who need household servants.

When we enquired about schooling of the kids, she replied in negative. There was no school on the highway. The nearest school was three km away and it was not possible for kids to go that far on their own. The male members had to leave for work early morning and hence they could not take the kids to the school and get them back. There was also a constant fear of police coming and removing their hut.

I could observe that the tent floor was very clean. The utensils were clean and empty. She was waiting for the sunset and her husband to come back, before she could cook the first meal of the day. Kids used to have tough time initially, staying empty stomach for the whole day. But slowly they learnt that they have no choice. Sometimes, some of the elder kids also used to go for begging near the junction to earn even a couple of rupees during the day.

I also saw some random brick structure in a nearby area. After an enquiry, I was told that it was an area demarked for those who have been displaced due to development activities. Mrs. Vinu Ben did not get any place in the demarked area as none of the family members had voter id cards. No one was ready to even listen to their pain. Bureaucrats, politicians, and police used to receive them with detest and would not even let them come near themselves.

I asked one of the persons from their group as to why is he smoking especially when earning is so difficult for them? The answer came with a smile. “This reduces our sorrow and helps us work for longer hours. I spend five rupees a day on smoking. But if I do not smoke, I will not be able to earn Rs. 50 every day.”, said the person. The young man went on to say, “It is like a fuel and an entertainment for us”. This revealed another side of the street life. People take even drugs to be able to come out of grief and to work continuously for long hours in any season.

During rainy season, they face a lot of difficulty. They have to save money to buy plastic sheets, costing Rs 200, to cover the top of their tent so that at least their kids can survive the rough weather. During winter months, they get help from Gandhi Ashram in the form of blankets. “Summer is horrible for us. It is very difficult for us to take care of very young kids. Some of them even die in the heat wave”, explained Mrs. Vinu Ben.

Even after all these troubles, they did not have any complain against the government. Mrs Vinu Ben said in her own language, “I don’t have any complains with the government. They are doing their job. It is our fate. I just want the government not to disturb us if they can not help us in making our life better”. They just wanted some support so that they can send their kids to school and some permanent place where they do not have the constant fear of the demon coming and spoiling their life.

Acknowledgement:
I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Ms. Johana, Mr. Eishak, and Mr. Kiran in helping me identify the family and being a facilitator during the first meeting.