[Reader-list] i-fellow: Posting 3

[Kaushiki Rao]

Hi all,

I'm so very sorry for this ridiculously late posting.  Many more soon, I
promise.

Kaushiki




Bawana: Apparently not "city".

According to the ever-worthy Wikipedia, 'urban' is defined as: "increased
density <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Density> of human-created structures
in comparison to the areas surrounding it."  Wikipedia further explains,
"The minimum density requirement is generally 400 persons per square
kilometre … In less developed countries, in addition to land use and density
requirements, a requirement that a large majority of the population,
typically 75%, is not engaged in agriculture and/or fishing is sometimes
used." By these definitions, Bawana is an urban settlement.

Moreover, Bawana is officially within Delhi city limits.  The DDA has built
roads and drains and TATA provides electricity.  There are MCD schools in
the area.  The Delhi government very much considers this resettlement colony
to be within its jurisdiction.

 Bawana, it would seem, is not just urban, it is in fact Delhi.

Yet, many people who live here say they are "far from the city".  They
repeat that they "miss Delhi", and that they would like to move back there.
Bawana, they shrug, "is supposed to be part of the city, but it doesn't feel
like it."  "Look around you!" Anita exclaims, "does this look like a city to
you?!"

So then, what is it that makes Bawana seem like it is not part of a city?  What
makes it seem not urban?

One reason is a sense of distance.  Most Bawana people have been resettled
from the Yamuna Pushta.  Living at the Pushta meant incredible mobility, and
easy access to income generating opportunities.  All that Delhi can offer –
jobs, schools, hospitals, parks, bazaars, movie theatres, and even the river
– was a stone's throw away.  Now, going to the "city" entails a 3 hour bus
ride, on a bus that comes only once a day.  Cycle-rickshaw wallas – of whom
there are many among the Bawana families – can only visit their families in
Bawana about once every two weeks.

A second reason is the lack of a sense of belonging.  Living at the Pushta
gave people a sense of belonging to Delhi – a sense that is missing at
Bawana.   Interestingly, the families of many people who were resettled from
the Pushta to Bawana come from places other than Delhi.  Some are from
Haryana, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and many others are from places as far as
Bangladesh.  There are even some Tamil families in the mix.  Still, all
these families had been at the Pusta for 2 or 3 generations before they were
resettled.  They had become Delhi-ites, and Delhi had become theirs.  Being
moved to the Pushta has erased that sense of belonging.  "This doesn't feel
like home, I am not comfortable here." Rafiya told me.

A third reason that makes Bawana seem like it is not part of the city is a
very different sense of space.  This, perhaps, is the most immediately
tangible reason.  Bawana is located in an un-used industrial area.  The
colony is surrounded by barren, uncultivated land with fabulously wide roads
and amazingly bright street lights.  I'm not sure if the land surrounding
Bawana is privately or publicly owned, but it has been 'developed' to
support factories … which never appeared.  What has appeared instead is a
reluctant settlement of a few thousand people.
Go to the highest point in Bawana (and this is a third storey of a house),
and you will see a small congested colony surrounded by wide swathes of
land.  Bawana looks like a little concrete island in the middle of a desert
of road, barren land and eyucalptus trees.  The colony itself has the
trappings of an urban area: one large main road on either side of which are
houses set along narrow gullies.  But a five minute walk from the main road
through one of the gullies will take to you to the end of the colony.  Pankaj
who was showing me around the colony would declaim every time we came to the
edge of the colony "And this is the end!  The end!"

There is much more to the politics of resettlement than simply 'adequate
rehabilitation'.  Aside from access to means of livelihood and
entertainment, to schools, hospitals and parks, perhaps discussions on
resettlement should include what means to be located not just in a different
space, but in an environment that is completely unfamiliar.
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