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Squatters also have dignity, claim slum dwellers
KATHMANDU, DEC 08 - There is nothing romantic about living in slum areas. Poverty, discrimination, incrimination and neglect are only some of the problems that feature every moment in the lives of squatters. On top of that, the tendency of the well-off to blame the squatters of perpetrating all sorts of mischief, imaginable make things all the more unbearable.
Meena Darnal is one among the 600 squatters living in the Bagmati riverbanks, at Jagriti Nagar, Ward 34, in Kathmandu. Darnal complains that the squatters are always blamed for theft and robbery in the neighbourhood. Unnecessary inspection in their huts whenever any incident of loot occurs, is one of the number of nuisances faced by their community.
"We squatters too have dignity. The homeless are not always thieves or robbers," Darnal said.
Ashok Kumar Rai, another local, said that their ‘high-class’ neighbours do not even allow their children to play with theirs. "They always accuse our children of loose character. Our children are blamed when their child does something wrong," he said.
Though they do not own even a piece of land, menial jobs such as painting, construction and similar occupations are the major sources of their income.
They have been living in the area for more than five years, without safe drinking water, electricity, and sanitation, as well as other basic infrastructure. Through their income they are hardly able to solve the hand to mouth problem. On top of that, they are regularly accused of dirtying the river while river pollution occurs mainly due to the drainage.
"Walking for water early in the morning is our first and foremost duty, as we don’t even have a single tap for a population of 600," informed Keshav Rai, president of Nepal Basti Society.
For these squatters, riverbank is their home compound and they cannot even think of destroying and polluting it, said Rai. "We agree our settlements cause problem in city management, but we have never denied leaving this place if we are settled somewhere else."
Rai argued that squatters deserve decent treatment from society. "We are also the first class citizens of the country, why are we looked down upon by others," he queried. " We are not against better management of the society. We just request people around us to understand our feelings and to consider us as human beings," he said.Posted on: 2003-12-09 03:58
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