As cops retreat from Campa Cola, photos of Mumbai slums that weren't extended the same courtesy
Across Mumbai, even legal residents are being evicted to make way for real-estate developments under the Slum Rehabilitation scheme. The authorities have never shied away from using physical force to carry out their task.
On Friday, the civic authorities beat a retreat from the controversial Campa Cola compound in Mumbai's Worli neighbourhood, as approximately 500 residents of illegal flats refused to allow their homes to be demolished despite a Supreme Court order to this effect.
The squatters shut the gates of the complex, put up bamboo barricades and formed a human chain to stop officials from entering. Inside, their neighours performed a havan. It is unclear whether the officials plan to return on Saturday.
The politeness that the authorities displayed to the residents of the middle-class colony stands in stark contrast to their aggression in demolishing slums across Mumbai – many of which are legal, but are being cleared to make way for luxury blocks under the state's Slum Rehabilitation programme.
In Golibar in Khar East, Sion Koliwada in central Mumbai and Ambedkar Nagar in Mulund in the north, residents of legal homes have turned to the police and the judiciary with evidence of fraud and forgery in Slum Rehabilitation schemes that threaten to displace them, but to no avail. Few politicians have offered them support, quite unlike the outpouring of assistance for the Campa Cola squatters. Legal homes have often been demolished even before the courts have heard residents' appeals. Battalions of police have beaten down any signs of protest.
Photographer Javed Iqbal has made it his mission to document slums demolitions across Mumbai. Here are some images he has shot over the last three years.
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The squatters shut the gates of the complex, put up bamboo barricades and formed a human chain to stop officials from entering. Inside, their neighours performed a havan. It is unclear whether the officials plan to return on Saturday.
The politeness that the authorities displayed to the residents of the middle-class colony stands in stark contrast to their aggression in demolishing slums across Mumbai – many of which are legal, but are being cleared to make way for luxury blocks under the state's Slum Rehabilitation programme.
In Golibar in Khar East, Sion Koliwada in central Mumbai and Ambedkar Nagar in Mulund in the north, residents of legal homes have turned to the police and the judiciary with evidence of fraud and forgery in Slum Rehabilitation schemes that threaten to displace them, but to no avail. Few politicians have offered them support, quite unlike the outpouring of assistance for the Campa Cola squatters. Legal homes have often been demolished even before the courts have heard residents' appeals. Battalions of police have beaten down any signs of protest.
Photographer Javed Iqbal has made it his mission to document slums demolitions across Mumbai. Here are some images he has shot over the last three years.
Ambedkar Nagar, Vile Parle, February 2011.
Ambujwadi, Malad, May 2012.
Golibar, December 2012.
Golibar, February 2011.
Mahatma Phule Nagar II, Mankhurd, May 2012.
Premnagar, Goregaon, November 2012.
Sant Nirankari Nagar, Mankhurd, February 2011.
Siddarth Nagar, Santa Cruz, January 2013.
Sion Koliwada, August 2013.
Sion Koliwada, May 2012.