, a move that housing campaigners said could plunge nearly 230,000 poor residents into even deeper poverty.
The Supreme Court, ruling in response to an affidavit filed by state-run Indian Railways, said 48,000 shacks should be pulled down in phases, setting a three-month deadline for the destruction of those in so-called “safety zones”.
“No interference, political or otherwise, should be there and no court shall grant any stay with respect to removal of the encroachments,” the judges said in this week’s order, which did not mention any plans for rehousing residents.
Officials at Indian Railways were not immediately available for comment on the court’s ruling in the pollution-focused case, which housing rights activists said would trigger further hardship and homelessness during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Every time you demolish a jhuggi (slum), every time you evict people, you are literally pushing them into poverty and destitution,” said Choudhary A Z Kabir of the Human Rights Law Network.
He said that without rehousing, “great distress” would be caused to families that are already at risk due to COVID-19, which is spreading faster in India than anywhere else in the world.
“On the one hand you’re telling me to remain indoors, on the other hand you’re demolishing my house,” Kabir said.
The pandemic and strict months-long lockdown have left millions of people jobless in the world’s second most-populous country, exacerbating the poor’s access to food, healthcare and housing.
Kabir said he was helping the slum dwellers and filing an application to the Supreme Court for all their representatives to be added as a party in the case, urging the court to consider their arguments and modify its order accordingly.❐
