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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | South Delhi garbage dump is home to a family of 6 62-Yr-Old Has Lived Here For 38 Years -Maria Akram

South Delhi garbage dump is home to a family of 6 62-Yr-Old Has Lived Here For 38 Years -Maria Akram

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published Published on Dec 2, 2012   modified Modified on Dec 2, 2012
-The Times of India

The next time you apologize for your home looking like a dump, spare a thought for Shobhraj Kumar. Most people who hurry past the garbage dump at Masjid Moth would find it difficult to stand there for a few minutes because of the all-pervading stench. But for Shobhraj and his family of six, the dump is home.

The 62-year-old says he has been living in the 20 sq ft concrete dhalao (dump) for the better part of 38 years.

The family, which collects refuse from nearby apartment buildings, even has two small children — Aditya, who is a year old, and Sagar, 2, living amidst the garbage. They are the kids of Kumar’s younger son, who got married a few years ago in Gorakhpur and brought his bride ‘home’ to the dump. She says,
 
“Life here is better than in Gorakhpur.”

Ironically, even to live in such filthy conditions, Kumar has to shell out Rs 800 per month. Family pushed to the dump and called encroachers Shobhraj Kumar was one of the lucky few slum-dwellers to be allocated a flat at Madanpur Khadar in 2003. But Kumar, who earns around Rs 2,800 per month, found he could not afford the daily commute from his new home to Masjid Moth. So he returned to live in the dump.Kumar turns philosophical when told that living in the dump was a health hazard. “God is different for the poor and the rich. Rich fall sick often as they can afford the treatment. The poor are blessed with a strong immunity. Despite living in a dump, me or my family do not fall sick very often,” he says with a smile.

Kumar says he lived in a Nehru Place slum cluster for a while after his elder son’s marriage. When the slum was removed he got a oneroom flat at Madanpur Khadar.

The family has two mattresses on which Kumar’s wife and daughter-in law sleep with the grandsons. “There are plywood and cardboard sheets on which I and my son sleep. The MCD toilet is our bathroom but during winter things get tough as there is no hot water. We boil water and then take a bath. It’s more difficult for the women,” says Kumar, as his grandson plays with stray dogs coming to the dump for a meal.

The Khadar flat is occupied by Kumar’s elder son. That’s house the Gorakhpur-born Kumar mentions when anyone asks for his address. The younger son lives with Kumar. His daughter-in-law, after a bit of coaxing, opens up to TOI.

“I didn’t know that I will be living in a koodaghar (garbage dump) after marriage. But life here is better than in Gorakhpur. We at least have electricity and the garbage here better than at my father’s jhuggi back home,” says Anjali, who married Kumar’s son four years back. The family has taken a line from the pole and a bulb illuminates the dump at night.

The winters are particularly harsh in the dhalao. The family cannot burn garbage to keep warm as residents in the nearby DDA flats have a problem with the smoke.

Many residents of the flat sympathize with the family. But for others, they are encroachers. “There are people living in much more worse condition but living in the dhalao is actually encroachment. We have so many times brought this matter up with DWM but to no avail. Even the police have not acted,” says an RWA member of the DDA Flats, Masjid Moth Phase-II. DWM is the private agency that looks after garbage disposal in the area.

The RWA member said if any one complains about Kumar and his family, he stops picking garbage from that house.

DWM supervisor, Rakesh Kumar, has his own version. “The family is nice and decent. They don’t create problems. I have so many times asked them to move. The RWA members have never approached me saying they have a problem,” says the supervisor responsible for garbage management of Masjid Moth, Phase I & II.

Residents say they have been others like the Kumar family who have made the dhalao their home. “Till recently, people were living in garbage dumps at Malviya Nagar and Sheikh Sarai. But after complaints to area MP Ajay Maken, these dumps were cleaned up and locked. They (people living in the dhalao) create so much nuisance,” says Keshav Aggarwal of Chittaranjan Park.

The Times of India, 1 December, 2012, http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=CAP/2012/12/01&PageLabel=3&Entit


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