[sustran] fwd: Pavement dwellers facing eviction
SUSTRAN info services
sustran at po.jaring.my
Wed Nov 29 11:10:00 JST 2000
>Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 15:27:57 +0530
>From: yuva <yuva at vsnl.com>
>Organization: yuva
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.6 [en] (Win95; I)
>X-Accept-Language: en
>To: yuva at vsnl.com
>Subject: URGENT - HOUSING RIGHTS VIOLATION ALERT (INDIA)
>
>Dear Friends
>We require your help urgently in forwarding the attached appeal for
solidarity in relation to a proposal by the State govt. of Maharashtra to
de-recognize pavement dwellers as having any right to settlement.
>Please assist us by circulating the attached appeal to all groups
concerned with housing rights, women's rights & child and youth rights.
>We are all quite shocked at this move which in effect obliterates what we
had struggled to achieve for a decade! Currently we are mobilizing
communities and lobbying with ministers of the state government. We hope
that housing rights networks/groups like yourselves will write in to the
relevant authorities to give our campaign a boost.
>To,
>The Chief Minister, Maharashtra : Fax No. : (91) 712 - 539059 ;
>The Chief Minister - Maharashtra, Ramgiri, Civil Lines, Nagpur; Tel : (91)
712 - 531366, 532463
>In earnest anticipation,
>Lysa John
>YUVA
>___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
>
> APPEAL TO PREVENT MAJOR HOUSING RIGHTS VIOLATION IN
MAHARASHTRA, INDIA
> SOS for Pavement Communities, Women &
Children
>
>· 25,00,000 of the 50,00,000 slum dwellers in Mumbai face the
threat of eviction
>· More than 700,000 pavement dwellers in Mumbai on the verge of
homelessness
>· Women in pavement communities in fearful anticipation of a
renewal of violent dispossesion
>· Atleast 200,000 children face an abrupt end to their education
>· "Double Displacement" for the large number Pavement dwellers in
Mumbai who have taken refuge in the city from project related displacement
in rural areas
>· Proposed change in Maharashtra Slum policy would mean a drastic
reversal of human rights and housing rights achievements of more than a decade
>
>Dear Friends,
>
>Thousands of slum and pavement dwellers across sixty cities and townships
of Maharashtra, India face the threat of displacement and homelessness
after the Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Desmukh of the state, announced a
new proposal to make drastic changes in the existing slum policy of the
state.
>
>The current policy came into existence in 1995 and is a result of a
concerted and arduous battle of more than a decade by housing rights groups
and people's organizations. The policy spelled out provisions for the
resettlement and rehabilitation of slum dwellers existing in the city
before a cut-off date of January 1, 1995. An important feature of the
policy was that for the very first time, it recognized PAVEMENT DWELLERS as
eligible for access to social housing through provisions for
>their legal recognition and their inclusion in the Slum Resettlement &
Rehabilitation program.
>
>In a shocking contradiction of existing guarantees for security of tenure
to the poor in the state, the Maharashtra State Government has announced
its decision to scrap the existing policy and introduce new measures that
seek to de-recognize all settlements on public lands and on pavements
irrespective of their date of origin. However, while it concedes to
provide resettlement to such slums that can prove its existence before the
year 1995, it has declared an outright REFUSAL to
>provide any form of compensation to pavement dwellers.
>
>In a further statement to the media on November 24, the State spokesperson
has also conveyed the decision to revoke the validity of the existing
'photopass'document, which currently serves as a critical proof of
residence before 1995 for slum and pavement dwellers, thus legitimizing
their access to housing schemes as protection from eviction. The
government is instead proposing a duplicate exercise of re-issuing 'new
photopasses'. This is a move that at the very least implies a situation of
heightened insecurity and repetition of a painstaking process of acquiring
security of tenure for ALL slum and
>pavement dwellers in Maharashtra, atleast 57,00,000 people in Mumbai
itself, besides a complete disregard of the administrative process.
>
>IMPLICATIONS
>
>Housing Rights
>
>The Slum Policy of 1995 is the result of the prolonged struggle of
activists and people's movements for the right to housing for the poor
against the series of brutal evictions en masse of pavement and slums
communities in Mumbai between 1985 and 1991. More than 100,000 families
were rendered homeless and many more affected by the physical and
>psycho-social trauma.
>
>The changes in the slum policy as proposed by the government of
Maharashtra, led by the Democratic Front, threatens to overwrite in a
single move the housing rights victory paid for with blood and toil by
thousands of the poor.
>
>Women's Rights
>
>The experiences of eviction in pavement communities such as Prakash Nagar,
Mahim and slum settlements such as Bhabrekar Nagar, Malad show that women
experience most significantly the violence associated with dispossesion -
not only during evictions but also before and after it. Physical
brutality and intimidation are the weapons used against communities of the
poor by evicting authorities and it is the women are both at the forefront
of the violence and the resistance. Moreover when evicted communities are
left to fend for themselves without access to the barest minimum of their
basic needs, women face the arduous
>responsibility of the survival of the family, even at the cost of their
own needs or safety.
>
>The Slum Policy of 1995 brought a semblance of stability and hope to many
women, particularly in pavement communities. Women members of the 'Bamboo
Kamgar Sanghatana' (Federation of Bamboo Workers) across 500 families of
marginalized bamboo workers who live and work on the streets of Sewri,
Mumbai had also organized themselves into Housing Co-operatives and
participated in training programs to equip themselves for their transfer
into the social housing promised by the previous State government, led by
the Shiv Sena - BJP combine, under the scope of the Slum Policy.
>
> The abrupt and outright withdrawal of all security against evictions for
the pavement dwellers implies a revival of an era of violence that has
already taken a significant toll on innumerable women in the city.
>
>Child Rights
>
>In December 2000, at a Child Rights Festival organized in Mumbai, Gauri, a
ten-year old girl living on the pavements, shared her dream for an ideal
home - that was safe and beautiful. Gauri is one of atleast 200,000
children who stand to have this dream shattered should the Democratic
Front, that forms the State Government in Maharashtra succeed in its
attempt to make regressive changes in the current slum policy.
>
>Besides the trauma of being mute spectators to the physical destruction
and brutality enacted against their homes and family, children of evicted
families are also affected in ways that have a determining effect on their
life opportunities. The iscontinuation of education, temporarily and/or
permanently, is an immediate consequence of the incidence of eviction.
Other factors such as the further impoverishment of the family, loss of
and/or disabilities affected on the parental/earning members of the family
as a result of eviction related violence, etc. have a far reaching impact
on the child's access to care and nurture, and are also known to pre-empt
their role in supporting their families through labour.
>
>IMMEDIATE ACTION
>
>We urge all individuals and groups concerned with housing rights, human
rights and the rights of women and children to help prevent the
implementation of this adverse proposal by faxing letters of concern to The
Chief Minister, Maharashtra : Fax No. : (91) 712 - 539059 ; The Chief
Minister-Maharashtra, Ramgiri, Civil Lines, Nagpur; Tel : (91) 712 -
531366, 532463
>
>Please write in to dissuade them from negating the rights of the poor to
housing, particularly in relation to their move to dispossess the pavement
dwellers. You may provide a reference of relevant national (for groups in
India) and international commitments to housing to reiterate the import of
the proposed move.
>
>Please help us in distributing this appeal as widely as possible and urge
them to join in writing to condemn this move.
>
>Also send copies of your letters to : YSVM (Yuva Shaheri Vikas Manch /
Forum for City Development) at : yuva at vsnl.com
>
>
>This appeal has been forwarded by the Yuva Shaheri Vikas Manch, an
alliance of activists, people's groups, NGOs and networks for the urban
poor. Member organizations of the Yuva Shaheri Vikas Manch include:
>· Footpath Rahiwasi Sangathna (Pavement Dwellers' Organization)
>· Stree Manch (Forum for Women)
>· Bamboo Kamgaar Sangathna (Federation of Bamboo Workers)
>· Bhabrekar Nagar Sangarsh Samiti (Bhabrekar Nagar Struggle
Committee)
>· Manav Mukti Morcha (Human Liberation Agitation - Youth network)
>· Krantikari Bhadekaru Sangathna (Revolutionary Tenants'
Organization)
>
>
Paul BARTER
Contact point for SUSTRAN Network information services
I am based in Malaysia and (soon) Singapore
sustran at po.jaring.my
http://www.geocities.com/sustrannet
For other SUSTRAN Network matters contact the NEW SECRETARIAT:
Dr Bambang Susantono and Ms Moekti H. Soejachmoen
Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific
(SUSTRAN Network)
c/o Pelangi Indonesia, Jl. Danau Tondano No. A-4,
Jakarta 10210, Indonesia.
Tel. +(62 21) 573 5020, 571 9360
Fax +(62 21) 573 2503
infortrans at pelangi.or.id, kuki at pelangi.or.id, bsantono at cbn.net.id
More information about the Sustran-discuss
mailing list