Did the DDA serve the interests of a real estate firm at the expense of the underprivileged?-The school that posed a threat to the CWG-12/8/10

The school that posed a threat to the CWG

Did the DDA serve the interests of a real estate firm at the expense of the underprivileged?

Was the so-called security threat orchestrated because some felt the jhuggis would be eyesores?

Last updated on: August 12, 2010 10:47 IST


Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Ayaskant Das

On July 7, the Delhi Development Authority 'brutally' demolished a structure that acted as a school for children from a juggi jhonpri cluster nearby, leaving 180 kids without a place to study. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Ayaskant Das report.

As temples of post-modern India continue to be constructed out of concrete and steel and as the media frenetically highlights allegations of corruption and nepotism in the organisation of the XIXth Commonwealth Games, a tragedy quietly unfolded along the banks of the River Yamuna that was hardly reported and was soon forgotten.

On July 7, nearly 180 underprivileged children were deprived of their education and the livelihood of their parents permanently impaired, thanks to the sporting extravaganza that will take place in the national capital between October 3 and 14.

This is a story about those who once fed the citizens of New Delhi, and their offspring. That morning will forever be etched in the minds of the children who studied in a ramshackle school located on the flood plains of the river that cuts through the country's capital.

Dozens of officials of the Delhi Development Authority, some of them on bulldozers, reached the site of the school accompanied by a posse of police personnel.

The children of farmers who grew vegetables on the fertile riverbank and their teachers appealed with folded hands. But the officials were unmoved. They went about their assigned task with clinical efficiency.

The school kids did not even have the time to salvage their belongings: books and stationery. The school had to be demolished, together with the hutments of the farmers. Why? They could have posed a 'security threat' to the Games village located not very far away!

The school had been started in 2006 by an unusually motivated farmer couple. It had been functioning out of temporary sheds. Teacher Dheeraj Singh who witnessed the demolition told Rediff.com: "We had earlier proposed to officials of the DDA that we would voluntarily shut down the school for three months before and after the Games but they didn't listen to us."

The school had been functioning reasonably well over the past four years. The children attended their classes regularly, the school premises were kept clean and doctors would come in regularly and conduct medical examinations on the students.

Above all, everything was free -- no tuition fees had to be paid and teachers' salaries were taken care of.

Eight of the 180 children had been promoted from the elementary level and had qualified for admission to Class VI in a larger school run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. All of that was to change forever on July 7.

The DDA was far from impressed that government land had been encroached upon, no matter for what laudable purpose. Rajesh Prasad, Commissioner, Land Management, DDA, was blase when asked by Rediff.com why no notice had been served before the school building was demolished: "School or no school, we do not need to serve a notice before removing anyone squatting on government land."

He added that the Delhi high court had constituted a committee under Justice Usha Mehra that had given clear directions for removal of all new construction that had encroached on the floodplains of the Yamuna. That was it.


Image: Teachers and students at the demolished school
Photographs: Manoj Misra