Kandivali slum razed twice, residents in limbo | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: For more than 300 slum families in Kandivali West, living amid the rubble of their former homes is their only safeguard for the future. After their tenements were torn down to rebuild a service road near the railway tracks in December 2024, the 70-80 families of the Saibaba Rehvasi Seva Sangh slum refuse to move until a decision is taken on whether they are eligible for rehabilitation. If they disperse, they fear losing any chance of being rehoused.

This is not the first time they have found themselves in this predicament. In 2012, the slum was razed, ironically for another road-widening project. While a few families were rehabilitated then, the other residents rebuilt their tenements when they were found ineligible for rehousing.

Wedged between the railway tracks behind a barricade and Pervin Sanghvi Marg, the residents claim they were not given proper notice before their homes were demolished in December 2024. “They didn’t even give us enough time to salvage our belongings when the JCB arrived. So we grabbed whatever we could – utensils, clothes, water cans – and keep them close to us,” said Hasina Sheikh, a resident.

Sheikh said she had been living in the slum since she was a teenager. “I came here when I was 17 after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, around 1985. Today, I am 60 and have many grandchildren. I’ve spent all my life here, working as a domestic help in the homes around, and now my daughters do the same.”

The issue of rehabilitation is a complicated one for these slum-dwellers. When their homes were demolished for road-widening in 2012, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said most of them did not qualify for rehabilitation as they had no proof of residence that went back to 1995, the then cut-off.

During the current action, the BMC cited a 2016-17 survey they had conducted on the slum, when the 1995 cut-off was still applicable. However, in 2018, the state government had revised the cut-off to 2011. Residents claim they now possess the relevant documents and must be considered eligible for rehabilitation under the 2018 regulations.

Santosh Rana, a slum resident, explains. “I have been living here for more than 25 years. Just like my father, I work on contract as a civic sanitation worker. But since none of us is properly educated, very few of us got our documents made before 1995, so we had no proof of our residence to show during the first demolition in 2012. Only a few among us had those documents, and they were rehabilitated.”

Rana says that in the early 2000s, the slum residents took steps to secure documents such as Voter ID cards, Aadhaar cards etc. “Now we have the proof we need to be considered eligible as per the 2011 cut-off,” he claims.

The residents have approached the Republican Party of India (RPI) and have begun making the rounds of the BMC, but to no avail. Sunil Gamre, a local RPI leader who has been helping the residents, admits it is complicated but is hoping there is a way out. “Together, we have met all the relevant civic officials, all the way to up additional municipal commissioner Vipin Sharma. All of them said they would come for an inspection and take a survey to decide on their eligibility but they haven’t shown up,” he said.

“This past week, we also met guardian minister Ashish Shelar, who too assured us of a quick response. But in a fortnight, it will be three months since the demolition, and nothing has happened,” Gamre said.

The residents say it is difficult for them to remain in limbo but will tough it out. “If the BMC tells us we are not eligible for rehabilitation in writing, at least we will have closure and can move on. For now, we are continuing to stay on the street because if we leave, we may lose what we are entitled to,” said Rana.

Salwe, assistant commissioner of R South ward, said, “The residents are ineligible for rehabilitation or compensation. And road-widening is necessary, so that has to happen. But the residents could plead their case for eligibility before the suburban district collector.”

The residents submitted their documents and appealed to the collector on Friday.