Mumbai: YUVA, a partner of HIC-HLRN in Mumbai,
has informed us of a brutal demolition in which
local authorities have destroyed 5,000 houses in
Mandala, Mankurd in Mumbai, and set fire to an
entire slum on 9 May 2006.

A police force of 500-700 along with Mumbai
Collectorate officials and 6-7 bulldozers
demolished about 5,000 houses in the slum
communities of Indira Nagar and Janata Nagar in
Mandala, near Mankurd in Mumbai.

The police came to the site around noon and were
confronted by women and men. All of a sudden,
people saw smoke rising from the back of the site
and rushed there to quell the fire. Meanwhile,
the police easily gained entry into the slum and
demolished most of the houses and burned the
rest, wiping out the entire community. The fire
continued burning for several hours, while fire
brigade personnel looked on passively, doing
nothing to extinguish the fire.

Furthermore, the police engaged in a massive
brutal “lathi charge” (assault with batons) in
Mandala, beating and dragging residents from the
demolished site, and destroying their personal
belongings. Police officials also put water in
the food being cooked in the community kitchen
and confiscated grain stores.

The police assault badly injured three people,
who then were admitted to the Satabti Hospital.
One of them remains in hospital. Shamin Banu
suffered a miscarriage after women police hit her
in the stomach. She is recovering in the Sion
Hospital, having suffered severe bleeding lost
consciousness after being beaten. In all, forty
persons received injuries during the demolition
and fire.

The police, however, ordered the nearby
government hospitals, including Satabti Hospital,
not to admit anyone from the slum and not to give
the injured persons any medical records, as those
documents might be used as proof of injury due to
police violence. The lack of cooperation from
hospital staff only reveals the tyranny of the
police.

Mumbai Collectorate gave the residents of Indira
Nagar only a 12-hour notice of the demolition.
Those evictees living in Janata Nagar had no
prior information of the demolition and were
taken completely unawares.

In its assault, the police arrested five men and
three women from the site. Ploice arrested Aisha
Bi, an activist from Mandala, was arrested from
inside her house. The police took the activists
to the Govandi Police station where they abused
and beat them, while handcuffing some of them,
and charging them with attempted murder under
Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code, which is a
non-bailable offence. The activist are currently
in jail.

A delegation of 15 people from social movements,
people’s organisations and concerned citizens
finally managed to arrange a meeting with the
Deputy Collector, Mr. Jhande, on 12 May. In front
of the deputy collector, police denied they used
lathis or other form of violence against people
in the slum. However, an independent team from
the Tata Institute of Social Sciences has
first-hand evidence of the events and will be
releasing its report shortly.

A large police force is still present at the site
and people face constant threats of arrest and
further eviction. People are out in the open with
the belongings that they managed to salvage from
the demolished site. From latest reports
received, the police have fenced the demolition
site with barbed wire, and have removed all those
people who had set up temporary structures for
shade.

Women and children are now sitting under the
scorching sun with no place to go and no
provision for shelter. The authorities have still
not provided any resettlement options to the
evicted. Police officials are also patroling in
nearby slums and threatening people not to give
food or shelter to the evicted people. Instances
of abuse by intoxicated policemen at night have
also been reported.

It is being reported that the Mumbai Metropolitan
Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is planning
to resettle people whose houses were demolished
as part of the Mithi River Development plan in
Mandala. This attempt would pit the poor and
displaced against one another.

The demolition is completely illegal, as the
government clearly has stated in its affidavit to
the High Court that Mandala is reserved for
people whose homes were demolished during the
2004-2005 slum-clearance drive. Apart from this,
a High Court-appointed Special Committee under
the chairmanship of Maharashtra state’s Chief
Secretary is still working on a plan for
providing affordable housing to all the slum
dwellers without any reference to a cut-off date.

 Background

In May 2004, the Congress Party’s Manifesto
promised to regularise slums built in Mumbai city
before the year 2000. However, in contravention
of its Manifesto, the Mumbai government engaged
in a massive demolition drive between November
2004 and March 2005 and destroyed an estimated
92,000 homes in 44 areas. The government
abandoned a survey undertway to identify those
individuals and families who had settled prior to
2000 and, therefore, eligible for protection in
the event of future demolitions. The government
notification legalising pre-2000 slums has yet to
materialise.

Moreover, the government has embarked on a new
urban renewal initiative known as "Operation
Makeover," which aims to free up public spaces
for infrastructure projects including shopping
malls and entertainment complexes. An estimated
5,000 homes have been razed so far, with
demolitions at present being undertaken in all 24
of Mumbai’s wards. This is part of the
government’s goal to reduce the slum population
of Mumbai from 60% to 20% as mentioned in the
McKinsey Report for Bombay First (a coalition of
builders, industrialists and city planners).
Sacrificing poor citizens’ human rights in favour
of luxury schemes for the rich reflects a
perverse and distorted paradigm of development.

In the last two months, Mumbai has witnessed a
fresh spate of brutal demolitions, generally
accompanied by police violence and the use of
force against residents. Until now, the city
government has not provided any rehabilitation or
alternative housing to any of the evicted.
Mandala, the site of the present demolitions was
earmarked as a rehabilitation site for those
evicted in 2004-05 but ironically, it has also
become a site of eviction instead.

 National and International Human Rights Law Violations

The demolition in Mandala is a blatant violation
of the human right to adequate housing. These
forced evictions without adequate rehabilitation
violate the affected people’s fundamental right
to life and livelihood as enshrined in Article 21
of the Indian Constitution. Reaffirming the
principle of indivisibility of all human rights,
the fundamental right to life encompasses the
right to live with human dignity. Furthermore,
Article 14 of the Constitution of India
guarantees equal protection under law.

The demolition also contradicts the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s Common
Minimum Programme (CMP), proposed in May 2004.
The CMP specifically states: "Forced eviction and
demolition of slums will be stopped and, while
undertaking urban renewal, care will be taken to
see that the urban and semi-urban poor are
provided housing near their place of occupation."

Besides contradicting the Common Minimum
Programme, the actions against the people of
Mandala constitute a violation of their basic
human rights to life, security, health, work, and
adequate housing; i.e., the right of all women,
men and children to gain and sustain a secure
place to live in peace and dignity.

The authorities have especially violated people’s
entitlements to security of tenure and freedom
from forced evictions; access to, and benefit
from public goods and services; information,
capacity and capacity building; participation and
self-expression; rights to resettlement and
adequate compensation for violations and losses;
and physical security and privacy. All are
elements of the human right to adequate housing
as recognized in international law.

By these evictions, the Indian authorities,
including the local authorities, have breached
their treaty obligations under, inter alia,
Articles 2, 11, 12, 13 and 15 of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which India acceded
in 1979. The State has been derelict in its
obligations as elaborated in the UN Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights General
Comments No. 4 on the right to adequate housing
and No. 7 on forced evictions. The State of India
also has contravened its obligations under
Articles 16, 27 and 39 of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC) to which it acceded on
11 December 1992, and Article 14 of the
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDaW), which it
ratified on 9 July 1993. The evictions also
constitute a gross violation of the new Basic
Principles and Guidelines on Development-based
Evictions and Displacement issued by the UN
Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing of the UN
Commission on Human Rights.

Action Requested:

Please write to the authorities in India, urging
them to respect their obligations under national
and international law to respect, protect,
promote and fulfil the human right to adequate
housing by:

– Ending police terror in Mandala, and
withdrawing police forces from the site
immediately,
– Instituting an independent enquiry to look into police atrocities,
– Stopping all demolitions till the committee
adopted by the High Court on affordable housing
comes out with a comprehensive housing policy,
– Compensating people for the destruction of
their homes and loss of their material and
nonmaterial losses,
– Providing adequate alternative housing in the same area.

Please send your communications to the following responsible parties:

Home Minister of Maharashtra
Mr. R.R. Patil
Telephone: +91 (0) 22 -2202-2401, 2202-5014
Fax: + (91) (0) 22- 2202- 4873
Email: DeputyChiefMinister maharashtra.gov.in

Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh
Fax: +91 (0)22- 2202-9214 / 2363-1446
Phone: +91 (0) 22- 2363 4950
Email: chiefminister maharashtra.gov.in
Prime Minister of India

Shri Manmohan Singh
7, Race Course Road
New Delhi 110 001
Fax: +91 (0)11 2301-6857 / 9545 (PM office)
Tel: +91 (0)11 2301-8668 / 2312 / 8939 (office);
+91 (0)11 2301-6996 (joint secretary); +91 (0)11 2301-8939 (personal secretary)
Email: manmohan sansad.nic.inand pmosb pmo.nic.in

President of India
Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam Azad
Rashtrapati Bhawan
New Delhi 110001

Fax: +91 (0)11 2301-7290; +91 (0)11 2301-7824
Tel: +91 (0)11 2301-3172,
Fax: +91 (0)11 2301-1689
Tel: +91 (0)11 2301-4930, Ext 4211, 4400, 4260 (secretary)
Email: presidentofindia rb.nic.in

President of Congress Party
Mrs. Sonia Gandhi
10, Janpath
New Delhi - 110 001
Fax : +91 (0)11 2301-8651
Tel: +91 (0)11 2301-9080 / 2379-2263
Email: soniagandhi sansad.nic.in

Minister for Urban Development
Mr. Jaipal Reddy
Nirman Bhawan
New Delhi 110001
Fax: +91 (0)11 2306-2089
Tel: +91 (0)11 2306-1162