BOMBAY June 15: Six months after Bombay experienced its first round of communal bloodletting; its riot-affected Muslims victims are still paying the price for their poverty. Devastated by the organized violence of December and January, tens of thousands of Bombayites living in its sprawling shanty towns are now facing a bitter fact that in the wake of the March 12 blasts, the attention of the city has slowly shifted away from them, and that they are practically alone in their struggle to pick up the pieces and resume their normal lives. Normalcy, even at the best of times, has always been a struggle for the slum dwellers of Dharavi and Behrampala, Ayodhya, Babri Masjid, “disputed structures,” “appeasement” and the like were far removed from their daily struggle for a square meal. Muthamma (name changed on request) lost her restaurant and her home in the riots. She pledged her photo pass the document which proves her legitimate ownership with a moneylender as collateral, This apart she pays him a monthly interest of seven per cent on the Rs 10,000 she borrowed, “I got only Rs 2000 (of the Rs 5000 compensation). The rest was taken by the agent a local corporator, “she says, resigned to such facts of life.
There are thousands like Muthamma easy prey for loansharks.as they sink into the quicksand of never-ending debts, paying up to 209% interest per month to rebuild their small business. According to RES records, at least 33 persons in Dharavi have still not received compensation due to them‘eiher because the dates do not fall within the period of the riots fixed by the government or they have not been treated in a municipal or state hospital, In Behrampada, the 53 families whose homes were burned have been unable to even begin recon Strutting their homes, thanks to the petty quarrels between some groups in the area.
A mother feels betrayed by the government and politicians, “Immediately after the riots, they all came even one official from America with so many promises. But now, nobody seems to want anything to do with us.”
Article extracted from this publication >> June 18, 1993
