SHILLONG: Below the Sweepers’ Lane adjacent to Bara Bazar fire and emergency service, one thousand residents are living in peril as basic amenities elude them.
A drain, which was probably once a stream and is now clogged with plastic waste and other garbage, runs through the middle of the ramshackle structures where the residents, mostly Muslims, stay. They eke out a living as rag pickers.
While dogs and goats make their space in the area filled with garbage, the children gather around the visitors.
The first site of the place is a profusion of waste materials, including empty liquor bottles, used water bottles among others collected by the rag pickers.
There are at least four persons, Sukhbinder Singh, Harjan Singh, Pappu Singh and Jagir Singh, who claim to be the owners of the ‘slum’ and rent out the makeshift rooms made of low quality wooden planks to the residents.
Though the area is under cantonment, these four residents of Sweepers’ Lane control the residents of the slum.
For one small room, the rent is Rs 2,000 per month and residents have to pay additional Rs 100 per head for using toilets. If two persons use the toilet, Rs 200 is charged.
If the residents delay in paying the rent in time, they are asked to vacate the place.
Besides, Rs 200 is charged for electricity per month, but from 9am to 5pm, the power is out.
The residents collect water from the adjacent areas and store in buckets for future use.
Majority of the slum dwellers are originally from Assam.
The dwellers say they do not get ration and other essential items and there are no NGOs to take up their cause. When several organisations visited the nearby Punjabi Lane with money and food items, the slum dwellers were ignored.
Neither the government departments concerned, human rights organisations nor national rights panels have visited the place to understand their plight.
The residents rue that though the state and central governments have several schemes to uplift slums, nothing has reached them.
Kids’ education prevented
There are at least 200 children living with their parents in the slum prone to crimes and exploitation. Some of them attend schools while others help parents in rag picking.
City-based social activist Shima Modak and her team of teachers tried to impart education to the slum children at a place arranged by the parents in the area.
The residents and the students used to clean the place after the classes.
However, Modak and her teachers arranged the classes only for two days as Harjan Singh from the nearby Punjabi Lane, who claimed to be the owner of the area, prevented the teachers and threw out the wooden planks a few days ago.
“Our intention was to help the poor children in their education and their parents do support our initiative but the obstruction has demoralised us,” Modak, who visited the area along with her team, said.
Modak, who is working hard to uplift the street children in the city, appealed to people to provide a place for the team so that the helpless slum children can be imparted with education.