Geetanjali Krishna: 'High' life in the slums

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Geetanjali Krishna
Last Updated : Feb 21 2015 | 12:05 AM IST
The other day, I noticed a woman in our neighbourhood park, with a box of sweets in her hand. She was offering them to all the domestic helps who come around mid-morning after they finish their chores for a spot of gossip in the sun. "Finally, my husband and I can call ourselves house owners," she said, happily. Over bright orange laddus, the ladies asked her about the new house. "What's it like?" asked one. "Does it have a bathroom?" asked another. The lady said, "It is nice and sunny, on the first floor, with a little balcony where one can cook. And while we don't have our own toilet, there's one very close by." She said what a relief it was to have a roof of one's own over one's head: "After all these years of moving from place to place, now we can finally put down roots!" The ladies, sweetened by the laddus, asked her to tell them more. "It's brand new, and, unlike the older houses in the neighbourhood, it actually has a pucca roof so I hope it won't get too hot in the summer," she said. "The best thing is that it is authorised, so we won't live in the constant fear of demolitions." By and by, I realised that her first floor home was in a slum.

With over-crowding in slums, it is common to see one, sometimes even two floors being built over flimsy shanties made of bricks, waste wood and fibre sheets. Precarious structures piled on top of each other, double-storeyed slum dwellings are hazardous on many counts, but aam aadmis have to live somewhere, after all.

Meanwhile, the women were still discussing the new house. "How was your 'floor' constructed?" asked one. "It has been raised on the brick walls of the ground floor to ensure stability," the homeowner replied. Another woman asked about the access to the first floor. The homeowner said, "There's a step ladder leading up. It's quite easy to climb but we'll have to be careful at night when it's dark," she said. The biggest challenge while living in a first floor slum dwelling, she said, was access to water. "We've had to install a water tank on our little balcony, and may need to hire a motor to lift water up every other week," she said.

Eventually, I joined in the conversation and asked her how her new home is compared to her present lodging. She was currently living in a tiny room in an unauthorised settlement near Hauz Khas village (south Delhi), said she. "Since it is unauthorised, there is just an open sewer around which we live. During the rains, overflow from the sewer enters our room. The toilet is basically a hole over the drain and thefts are common," she said. Most of all, at ground level, she felt more insecure. "I've two grown-up daughters at home and, currently, we have little privacy. The first floor will give us a little more of that." Moreover, being on higher ground would protect them and their belongings from flooding during rains.

A brave voice asked how much the first floor slum cost. "Too much..." she said, "almost Rs 1 lakh. But we were paying about Rs 1,000 as monthly rent, so we figured that this would be better." That was a huge price to pay, I commented. "Yes, but it is on a first floor. These days, because slum land is cheaper, property developers are making two, even three-storeyed tenements with attached toilets. You should see how good the 'panthouses' with terrace rights are! Maybe one day, we'll be able to afford one of those," she said, longingly, as she went off to distribute more sweets.

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First Published: Feb 20 2015 | 10:36 PM IST