EDITORIALS
Forced ‘Rehabilitation’ in Mumbai
Resettled residents carry out a “save our lives” campaign, but for the state, do they even exist?
T
he entire process by which the 5,700 families from around
Mumbai’s Tansa Lake pipeline were shifted to Mahul is
indicative of not only a brutal and deliberate indifference
to the very existence of the poor, but also of how the state views
its responsibilities towards these citizens. Every stage of the
decade-long saga of nearly 30,000 people being uprooted and
forced into an area that is commonly referred to as a “gas cham-
ber” and “toxic hell” reeks of political expediency. Their “reha-
bilitation” from one place to another has been coercive. It has
also been done to a site without basic amenities for their daily
needs and for them to gain their anyway precarious livelihoods.
What is heartening however is that these families have not
meekly accepted their fate. They are using various means to
bring their plight to public attention and pressurise the authorities.
Maharashtra is estimated to have nearly 30 lakh project-affected
persons (PAPs) who are yet to be rehabilitated. In the Mahul case,
in 2009, the Bombay High Court asked the state government to
evict and clear slum dwellers and their hutments from within 10
metres of the Tansa Lake pipeline because they were considered
a security threat. Of the 16,717 hutments, 7,674 were considered
eligible for rehabilitation. Even as they protested and pleaded
they were assured by politicians (including a minister in the
present state cabinet) that their concerns would be taken into
account. However, they found that the forcible evacuation through
the demolition of their homes left a majority of them with little
choice but to move to Mahul. The cluster of 72 buildings each
with seven floors, into which they have been located, offers an
almost surreal sight. There is no connecting infrastructure and
amenities, however poor, that usually accompany such a large
residential settlement. Instead, these buildings stand amidst
two major oil refineries, one power-generating company, one
chemical and fertiliser unit, and other big industrial units.
According to media reports, the Maharashtra Pollution Control
Board’s Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index rates Mahul
as severely polluted and in 2015, the National Green Tribunal
(NGT) had termed Mahul as unfit for human habitation. The
Bombay High Court, which was petitioned by a group of residents
here as well as the Tansa pipeline-affected residents in August
2018, directed the state government to move the residents to
other accommodations within a month. In a classic case of
speaking with forked tongues, the state housing minister
Economic & Political Weekly EPW decEMBER 8, 2018 vol lIii no 48
assured the residents they would be moved to a project in Kurla
while the chief minister said in November 2018 that since the
case is in court, he could not take a decision on the issue.
The health and educational facilities are accessible at unaf-
fordable distances and costs. But far worse are the illnesses and
diseases that assailed them: skin rashes, respiratory ailments,
tuberculosis and overall lack of physical well-being. In the
petition that they have filed before the high court, they have
referred to a survey conducted by a major public hospital point-
ing to the environmental factors as responsible for their various
ailments. This is further marred by a contaminated water
supply and abysmal drainage and sewerage systems. The media
has also reported the right to information (RTI) responses which
point to deaths in this settlement due to illnesses contracted
after moving into this area.
It is no wonder then that the residents frequently invoke the
image of death when talking to the media and bureaucrats.
They believe that they have been sent to the settlement to die,
not to live and even their campaign is called “Jeevan Bachao
Andolan” (agitation to save lives). It is almost as if as far as the
state is concerned, they do not exist.
Government after government has proudly announced plans
and proposals to turn Mumbai into a “world class city.” But it
seems as though a malevolent force has been unleashed in the
course of this proposed and often imaginary transformation.
All the outward manifestation of infrastructural works only
hides the steady and rapid deterioration of the factors that once
contributed to the city’s reputation as a politically conscious one,
proud of the contributions of its working class. So, as the city’s
famed public transport is deliberately weakened and its work-
ing residents are pushed farther and farther into the extended
suburbs, it is as if the message is clear: if you cannot survive this
transformation, get out of the way and quietly die. Unfortunate-
ly, unlike the Mahul residents, there seems to be no concerted
agitation to fight back against this lopsided transformation.
The Mahul resettlement episode also shows how the state’s
policies for housing of the urban poor and low-income groups
are totally inadequate. It is clear that the contribution of a large
section of urban citizens is totally discounted in the making of
the city and the functioning of its economy. But it is the spirit of
the Mahul residents that must be saluted.
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