Slum dwellers’ convention demands immediate end to bulldozer demolitions

Hundreds of residents from 13 slums and JJ clusters gathered in Delhi for a mass convention on housing rights, issuing a final warning to the BJP government to stop the demolition of working-class homes.

In recent months, continuous bulldozer action has razed houses across slums and JJ clusters, displacing thousands of families. The residents said while their homes were branded “unauthorised” and “illegal” by the authorities, over 73 per cent of Delhi’s population resided in unauthorised colonies. Instead of providing dignified housing and essential civic services like water supply, toilets, sewer lines and roads, the government had persisted with demolition drives, they alleged.

Participants included residents of Wazirpur, Indira Camp, Dhobighat, Madrasi Camp, Bhumiheen Camp, Jai Hind Camp, Lal Bagh and several others.

Bibi Akhtari from Dhobighat said, “We constantly live under the threat of bulldozer action by the DDA. A flyover is being constructed on the flood plain of Yamuna. However, the poor appears to be a problem for the government.”

Shreya from Jai Hind Camp said, “The residents of the camp are living in darkness, without any supply of electricity for more than a month now in this humid heat of Delhi. It is 2025 and thousands of slum dwellers in the posh South Delhi area of the Capital are being punished for being Bengali speaking workers.”

Sucheta De of CPIML said, “From bulldozer action to vote chori through SIR, the government has unleashed an all-out attack on citizenship rights of Indians. The collective strength of the slum dwellers in Delhi will guarantee that all slums and JJ Clusters must be brought under the protection of law.”

The convention adopted a demand charter, calling for an immediate halt to demolitions of JJ clusters and forced evictions from land owned by either government agencies or private entities. It sought a fresh survey of all JJ clusters, bastis and settlements in Delhi, to be monitored by an independent panel of people’s representatives and housing experts.

The participants demanded that the eligibility criteria be revised, with the cut-off date for jhuggi construction set at July 1, 2025, and a cluster defined as a minimum of 20 households, while jhuggis in Zone O should be treated on par with other JJ clusters. They further insisted on the in-situ rehabilitation or resettlement within a 5-km radius, based on the survey findings, and compensation or alternative housing for families already displaced without rehabilitation.