It's not too often that I get Chintu readied for school and not my wife Ananya (not that I was complaining) but today was different. Our maid Rekha, who is actually the caretaker of my family, hadn't turned up for work today and so Ananya was busy in the kitchen, doing the dishes and preparing the breakfast. "She (Rekha) never fails to show up, she hardly ever takes an off other than on festivities. It must have been something serious to keep her at home. She isn't picking up my calls either. I just hope she hasn't fallen sick", muttered Ananya (almost to herself), as soon as I entered the kitchen to assist her.
"Hmm..." is all that I could come up with in reply. My mind had already started freaking out, dreading the consequences if Rekha was indeed ill -- "Will I have to get Chintu readied for school every day now that Ananya would be busy in the kitchen, till the time Rekha gets well and returns to work again?" It's always a challenge to make Chintu sit quietly at one place so that I could make him wear his clothes. I wonder how Ananya manages to do that.
We had our breakfast and left for our respective work places -- I was to drop Chintu at his school before leaving for my office. After dropping him off at his school, as I was starting to leave for my office, suddenly I saw Rekha coming from the opposite side. She was in such a hurry, was almost running and she was weeping as well. Tears were streaming down her face. She had clutched a brown coloured packet tightly in her hands, those that the medicine stores give you.
"Hey, Rekha. Rekha...Where are you running towards? What has happened?"
Seeing me she at once stopped. Had I not called out her name, probably she wouldn't have noticed me. She was visibly worried and could hardly speak, was gasping for breath.
"We were worried, Ananya gave you so many rings but you didn't answer. Is everything okay at home?", I continued.
"My son Miku is seriously ill, sahib. He is running a high fever and has also been vomiting every now and then since last night. I really don't know, sahib, what to do? I had taken Miku to the Government dispensary in Sector 16 this morning for a check-up, the doctor said it's probably malaria going by the symptoms but told us to get a blood test done to ascertain it. The reports will only come in the evening. I am really worried, sahib", she continued weeping.
"You could have asked us for help, Rekha, yesterday night itself. Okay, come, I will drop you at your place."
"Nahin, sahib, I will manage."
"Oh, come on, sit in the car."
Rekha lives in Shakur Basti, a slum colony right behind my apartment society. Although it is located less than a five minute walkaway from my apartment and I had drove past it a several times but this was the first time I was going into the basti. The narrow byways wouldn't have allowed my car to get into the basti, so we got out and started walking. And I was mighty surprised. Because though categorised as a slum colony but it hardly looked one -- the area was clean and neat enough. Piled up garbage on the road side, overflowing drains, dirty stagnant water on the pathways, shanties built out of discarded plastic or gunny bags are what one associates with a slum. But all of these were conspicuous by their absence. Of course the road into the colony was only a kutcha one and had many potholes, but it was much better than many other localities in the city. Except for a few disheveled-looking huts with patched tin-roofs, most of the inhabitants who are mostly rickshaw pullers, auto and lorry drivers or labourers, have built up fairly decent pucca houses.
There was only one thing that bothered me in the basti -- as soon as I entered the slum colony, I was greeted with a very strong, pungent stink - a foul smell of something rotting may be, hung in the air. It would have made anyone's stomach turn. I almost threw up. "Where is this smell coming from?", I wondered, because the residents had kept their colony fairly clean. But I had to be quick on my feet as Rekha kept hurrying her steps as she guided me to her home. Passing through several narrow lanes and a few kutcha huts on the way, we finally reached Rekha's house. She has built a nice, little house for her family with her modest income. And like she keeps our home, she has kept her home squeaky clean too. But that same pungent smell that had greeted me at the slum's entry once again reached my nose. As if that was not enough, I had got some other irritants too for company -- flies and mosquitoes. While Rekha got down to give her son the medicines she had brought with her and put him back to sleep, I remained busy in shooing away the flies and the mosquitoes with one hand and holding my nose with the other.
Seeing my discomfiture, Rekha at once closed the window, "sorry, sahib, I know, it must be very uncomfortable for you to sit here with this unbearable smell and these mosquitoes and flies but we are equally helpless. The once famous Shakur Basti pond that lies behind this colony has now been turned into a large open drain. After the apartments sprung up here in the last few years, the builders instead of planning a proper drainage system, only channeled their drains' sewage pipes into this pond, knowing all too well that it was only us, the poor people of this slum, who used the pond and even if we complained, the authorities won't listen to us. And following suit, now the Jeevan Jyoti hospital right across the other side of the pond has also started to dump all its medical wastes into it. That has only aggravated the situation and multiplied our problems. Sometimes the stink is so unbearable that even during the hot summer months, we have to keep our windows and doors closed all the time. The drain with its muck has now become a breeding ground for the mosquitoes. The situation gets even more horrendous during the monsoons."
Rekha's statement left me dumbfounded. "How can the builders turn a pond into a drain? Hasn't anyone of you from the slum ever complained to the municipality? Don't the municipality men come to clear the piled up garbage? And how can the hospital dump its medical wastes into the pond? It is very hazardous and can cause outbreak of epidemics", I asked. Now I knew why his son had fallen sick.
"Several times, sahib. We have been running from pillar to post since past so many months to get this garbage pile and the drain cleaned up. We had even humbly asked the hospital authorities not to add to our woes by dumping their wastes into the pond, but our pleas fell on deaf ears", replied Rekha.
The last sentence of Rekha kept ringing in my ears all through the way to my office. It's sad but true. Indeed
, what is dire to some, is a non-issue to others. But after having seen the unhygienic conditions in which Rekha and others like her are living in Shakur Basti due to the neglect of the civic bodies, how could have I remained blind to their woes? How could have I remained silent?
Kyuki Bin Bole Ab Nahi Chalega #AbMontuBolega. I sent emails at once to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, pointing out the negligence on the part of the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) and that of Jeevan Jyoti Hospital to dispose off their medical waste in the pond. I hope they act on my complaints and the Shakur Basti dwellers get back their pond in its squeaky-clean avatar. And no one falls sick again like Miku due to unhygienic surroundings.
This isn't a one-off case with only the inhabitants of Shakur Basti, it's probably the story of every slum area, this neglect of the less privileged class is seen all across the nation. Most of them live in abysmal conditions, especially with lack of suitable sanitary facilities. Yet the administrative corridors remain largely indifferent to their plight. The problems of the poor seem too trivial to bother the officials. They hardly ever go to meet them or hear their grievances. It's really saddening to see the lackadaisical attitude and indifference on the part of the civic authorities to the problems of the poor. One feels utterly helpless in the face of such apathy.
The poor masses are often neglected when it comes to being provided with basic rights and hospitable living conditions -- especially health and adequate sanitation. Of course we have no magic wand to eradicate poverty. But at the same time, the State has an obligation to provide suitable living conditions to its entire population (and not just to the better-off sections). Sadly, this obligation remains largely unfulfilled, more so to the poorer sections of the society. And they are gradually and quietly being conditioned to accept the status quo as reasonable.
At a time when cleanliness drives are being witnessed across the nation as part of the Campaign Clean India (Swach Bharat Abhiyaan), can we afford to turn a blind eye to the inadequate and poor sanitation conditions prevailing in the slum areas? If we indeed wish to have a 'Swach Bharat', we need to make sure that sanitation and hygiene facilities remain equitable for all social classes. The slum dwellers too deserve to have a clean neighbourhood.
