Some forty millions Indians are illegal squatters in bustees. They are the underside if the new India, the migrant workers who fuel the fast expanding economy. The Indian government never built low-income housing for its rural migrants, as did the United States, Europe, and, more recently, China. Instead, immigrants from the hinterlands rely on city slumlords, who pay off local politicians to protect the slums. The politicians allow the shantytowns to stay standing because that guarantees them the votes of the inhabitants and protect their careers. It's a perfect circle of corruption, at least until the politician is voted out of power. The the city comes in with bulldozers.
This time, the Supreme Court had ordered all "riverbed encroachments" to be cleared, in an effort to save Yamuna from further pollution. Ten thousands of people were expected to be moved out of their shanties on the Yamuna Pustha, the embankment of the river. Radha had a flicker of hope in a rumor she'd heard that Delhi government was allotting alternate land, far outside the city, to jhuggi owners who could produce their paperwork. The idea of trying to negotiate India's opaque officialdom was deeply intimidating to Radha, though. With neither formal education nor street smarts, she found it a challenge just to get around the city on a normal day. Radha couldn't tell time, so she had to rely on the height of the sun in the sky, and it was often blocked by buildings or smog. She couldn't read numbers, so I made calls for her from my home phone. She always asked someone on the street which bus to board; she couldn't identify the bus routes from the signs.
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Sideways on A Scooter, Life and Love in India, P146~147
Miranda Kennedy
ISBN 978-1-4000-6786-2
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