[Reader-list] alleged bad charecters

[Bharati]

No Entry into Public Space for Suspicious Characters
 

Who do you reckon is a suspicious character? Or, an alleged bad character, a possible thief? And does this person allowed to share the roads and parks with the Others?  

 

An interaction with the Lodi Road Police Station (PS) last evening offered some clues. The PS contentedly lies in the shadow of the ubiquitous Habitat Centre, where in fact, last week, seminars about the city and one dedicated to its waste were conducted. The PS also attracted visitors as the pavement crawling BMW lay parked there for a while.

 

To cut a long story short, a group of wastepickers called up in office  to let us know that at least 2 persons , also wastepickers whom we know rather well, had been picked up by the police. 

 

Before this, they had already grouped up and made one visit to the police station themselves, a practice followed with generous success. 

 

Then, pissed off with a system invincible except by class and contacts, they asked us to help. 

 

Their problem began as they entered. As they walked in , 5-6 of them, a policeman (one presumes) in plainclothes handed them a duster and asked them to start cleaning a posse of cars (towed away, or recovered) parked outside. They protested, saying they had come for work. He slapped them and said that this didn't matter : he needed them to clean up a few cars. 

 

They cleaned one and escaped inside, to find their friends seated, on the floor, well slapped. Nobody would tell them anything.  Their friends got them to take away their bags and sell off  any waste. Wastepickers typically survive on a day's earning. Burn his bag, or lock him up and the day is lost.  If he is unlucky, he'll be locked in for a long time.

 

I went to the Police Station because I was both fearful (visions of beatings that never show on the skin) and curious about the absence of any obvious allegation. Here is what happened : 

 

A row of persons were sitting hunched on the floor, including our 2 ragpickers : Munir and Malik Mullah. Better slapped and with further work experience : they had spend at least an hour cleaning the  cars and pushing them so that there was place for new ones.  A team of 3 policemen were sitting on chairs, making notes in giant registers. It took 5 minutes to grab their attention; They directed us to the Sub Inspector In charge. Something Sunil, who explained why . 

 

Apparently, Lodi Colony is inhabited by 'good families' whose houses have been robbed in the last few weeks , mostly in the day . Today, the police decided to go and fix this problem Big Time. The sent out vehicles and picked up anyone sitting, standing or walking in the back lanes. Why? Because only suspicious characters hang around in backlanes - they want to be hidden. The waste pickers had a Chintan I-Card, which often helps them negotiate. Not this time. " Whether a man has a CBI card, an IB card or a Chintan card, we will not let him off. " SI Sunil declared, in a contorted, perverse understanding of equality and justice that could only have been so finely honed after years of practice

 

Pardon my legal illiteracy. The norm SI Sunil said was that persons could be detained for upto 23 hours and that they would be given a meal. (madam, I also eat at erratic hours). The SHO-tough, aggressive Omwati Malik, finally allowed the 2 to leave on condition that I (alleged good character) undertook a written verification saying that these persons were not thieves.  So I vouched for them. Good character transmitting goodness. The other policemen were livid and loudly grumbled about making a mountain of a molehill. And the other back-laners stayed put. 

 

As I left, the Sub Inspector asked me to tell everyone this : (Take Heed!) 

 

  1.. No one should be found idling their time by the police. 
  2.. No one should be found in back lanes, or they will be caught again. (what about those who venture there to chuck their garbage which attracts ragpickers? We will be discussing this backlane duality later today in a meeting with the police. Yesterday, they were busy with a VIP route. ) 
  3.. All wastepickers must also carry a bag of waste at all times to authenticate their occupation. 
 

I presume therefore that an environmentalist must carry a plant, a doctor a stethoscope and students a bag of books.  Maybe a list exists for alleged respectable occupations and their insignia. Wastepicking could never qualify, but maybe it now has an honorary inclusion under public pressure. 

 

Our friends, Our Alleged Bad Characters revealed more , after they were released, in a spontaneous meeting just behind The Habitat Centre: 

 

 

  1.. Neither of them were in back lanes. One was in a market. The other was sitting on a pavement, exhausted by the heat, waiting for his wife to collect waste from across the road in their cycle rickshaw (sorry, they were fund to be in possession of another banned item. Rickshaws are not allowed in the area).
  2.. Both had bags of waste which their friends took away to sell. 
  3.. Both felt that there was a dual purpose in their detention : slave labour and pleasing the officials who live in Lodi Colony. 
 

 

Anyone who is the opposite of middle class is not only being thrown out of their homes (mass slum demolitions without notice as per the High Curt Order) but off the roads, pavements, parks, and everywhere where they can 'contaminate' the city. The drive is moving at a frantic pace. It's an epidemic. It's spreading rapidly within all the arms of the government. How does one contain it? 

 

PS : the msg was still in the outbox, so let me add. We've had the meeting. The SHO has demanded a list of 'thieves' from the ragpickers coz she is convinced they know all of them and that all of them, like the ragpickers, are not residents of the area. Even I, with no lofty expectations, found myself stupefied. All the beat walas were shown the cards and asked to respect them, and to call on the nos (Chintan office) in case of problems. We said we wd let her know if we found thieves (actually the wastepickers know a few for sure but their dilemma is of handing them over and then letting them be beaten up.) She pointed out persons she thot were substance abusers from the group (I can tell from your looks) which was totally ridiculous. They screamed back at her and then, she was a bit taken aback. 

 

Let's see now.

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