Mumbai: Another chawl opts for civil works at own cost

Shradha Rathod cooks near the gutter outside her home

Another case of residents spending their own money on infrastructure to prevent water from repeatedly entering their homes has come to the fore. Fed up of losing sleep due to water entering their homes in the middle of the night, the residents of Neel Kantheshwar chawl in Mankhurd decided to take matters into their own hands. They claim to have procured cement using their own money and hired workers to create raised platforms seen outside their homes.

The residents also placed tiles over the gutter located half a metre away from their houses to prevent the accumulation of garbage, and the breeding of insects and to contain the stench. However, the work, which cost each household Rs 2,000, will have to be redone once rainwater damages it again. mid-day had reported in its ‘missing corporators' series on July 18 on how residents had pooled in money to better their drainage system at a chawl in Dharavi, due to a lack of response from the BMC.

Residents say, at times, children fall into the open gutter

According to resident Komal Yadav, insects from the gutter enter their homes, contaminating their utensils and biting them. Ramasamujh Yadav and other community leaders claim that the court had ordered the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to fix the condition just under a year ago. "We did not choose to move to this place. The 126 families affected were relocated here from a slum at Jai Hind Nagar Sonapur (Mankhurd). The BMC moved us from our original place due to the construction of a nullah," Yadav said.

While residents claim to be perpetually unwell, one of them, Rakesh Bind questioned, "How can a country become a superpower if people who share my story are absent from work due to illnesses caused by unsanitary conditions and productivity gets stalled?" According to Bind, he studied hard to escape the life of a physical labourer and a farmer like his peers and instead, became an AEM web designer - the first of the educated generation of his family.

Speaking about the BMC not responding to slum dwellers' tweets on problems, he said, "I take photos of civic issues and tag the BMC, but they do not respond. However, I notice they respond to people from well-off families. I encourage other slum dwellers to use social media and send emails to the BMC."

Local residents Komal Yadav, Kamal Singh Marothia and his wife Gobindevi

Shradha Rathod, who at times is forced to cook food on a live fire close to the gutter which is just outside her door, said she has to cook outside "next to filth, which is why the residents fall sick". "Sometimes it gets flooded and I have to take the fire inside the house, which causes it to be filled with smoke," she said.

Kamal Singh Marothia said his granddaughter falls sick four to five times every month and he ends up paying Rs 1,500 per month in medical bills. "With a salary of Rs 8,000 per month, I have to spend Rs 1,500 on medical bills and additionally for rent and other pending payments. We are left with hardly anything and even buying rations becomes a problem," he said. According to his wife Gobindevi, the family is unable to take the child to a free clinic when she is unwell as it is a 20-minute walk through many waterlogged areas and includes a wait at the bus stop.

mid-day also saw the muddy road leading to the chawl, which Marothia says gets waterlogged. The residents also complained that at times children fall into the gutter as uneven objects submerged in the water are not visible. Alka Sasane, assistant municipal commissioner, M-East ward, did not respond to mid-day's text messages and calls for comment till the time of going to press.