[Reader-list] Tresspasses - Legality and Illegality

[Zainab Bawa]

18 September 2004
News Snippets - Times of India

These days, some of the news on the front page of the Times of India relates 
to infrastructure in either Mumbai City or the metro cities in India. There 
is this growing wave about cities becoming the hubs of economic capital and 
migrations in the coming decades. The emphasis on cities is continuously 
increasing - you can feel the pressure through the news! The main issue 
under discussion and deliberation is the growing influx of migrants in the 
city and the subsequent pressures on urban infrastructure. Water scarcities, 
land shortages, lack of housing, growth of slums (and squalor - a 
combination which Times of India loves to associate), felling of trees and 
occupation of forest land by builders, etc. are the prominent urban news 
items. With these shortages, the boundaries between insiders and outsiders 
are becoming more and more stark - who owns and who can be disowned?

A piece of news some days ago talks about a group of eleven prominent 
residents in the city who have filed a PIL asking that illegal encroachers 
be removed from the voters' list. They believe that encroachments on railway 
land and pavements prevent 'developmental work'. Political parties will not 
remove illegal slums because those are their vote banks. The ruling parties 
keep legalizing the slums. Subhash Bhende, litterateur and one of the 
petitioners says, "We are not against slum dwellers, but against the 
unauthorized slums that are obstructing infrastructural developments." He 
believes that voting is not a constitutional right and under the 
Representation of People's Act, in order to vote, you must fulfill two 
conditions: you have to be over 18 years of age and an ordinary resident of 
the area. Bhende therefore argues that election officials should not 
register names of slum dwellers in the voters' list without inquiring into 
the legal status of their residence. He adds, "You can't register yourself 
as a voter by saying 'I live under the lamp-post'." Bhende's proposition is 
that if these people cannot vote, the government will lose interest in them 
and will not protect them. "We are not saying that they should be removed or 
thrown out, we are just saying that this is a way of ending the viscous 
cycle of increasing encroachments. We can't stop people from coming in the 
city but at the same time, we have to find some way of solving the problem."
Jockin Aruptham, slum activist and Magsaysay award winner is on the other 
side of the debate. He fears that this stand against slum dwellers and 
migrants is only going to increase the existing divides in the city. He 
says, "Today, if we take away the voting rights on the basis of where people 
stay, tomorrow it could be on the basis of their religion or place of 
origin."

Today's news talks about how the BMC has now dug out the old rule of fining 
illegal hawkers a fine of Rs. 10,000. The news item reads as follows:
'Mumbai: For the first time, unlicensed hawkers in Mumbai may well be fined 
a stiff Rs.10,000. A long-forgotten rule allows the civic administration to 
impose this hefty amount. The corporation is now actively considering 
imposing the fine as it finds it increasingly difficult to relocate hawkers 
in the proposed hawking zones. Senior civic officials said the proposal 
awaits the municipal commissioner's approval.
Currently, hawkers are fined Rs.300 to Rs. 400 and their confiscated goods 
are returned within 48 hours of payment of the fine. On the directions of 
the supreme court, the corporation has earmarked 236 hawking zones but is 
finding it extremely difficult to relocate hawkers particularly those 
entrenched near railway stations and busy junctions.'

When I read these news items, I wonder who is a migrant and who is a 
resident? What kind of timeline are we talking about which legalizes our 
presence and makes us 'legal residents'? With the burgeoning population 
growth, I wonder whether there is truly anonymity or whether ghettos are 
becoming increasingly distinct? These blurred lines of 'legality and 
illegality', these sharp divides of residents and outsiders - who is 
defining and dictating these shadow lines? Who decides? Who enforces? Who 
acts?

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