With a whistle from the police, all the squatters living on the Bagmati River bank at Thapathali hurry to remove the makeshift shelters of corrugated sheets and hoarding material they erected the previous night. Police will destroy such makeshift homes if they are not removed before daybreak. [break]Removing and remaking makeshift shelters has become daily routine for these people since the past two weeks.
The whole day infants, newborn and the bed-ridden old alike have to face the baking sun. The mercury has been soaring these days. Babita´s mother Shivadevi, 45, said that apart from the heat she has lived with rain and thundershowers during this period. Some policemen also seek refuge in makeshift shelters when there is a hailstorm but they show no mercy after it stops. “They throw away the sheets and all our belongings get soaked,” Shivadevi said.
Babita has some fresh scratches on her face and body from the corrugated sheets. “The strong wind turned the metal sheets over, causing these cuts,” she said. She has not taken any tetanus vaccine nor does her mother have any idea about such things.
Shivadevi said she and her husband used to spend the whole night holding on to the makeshift shelter. Her youngest daughter Shreedevi is suffering from chronic malnutrition and weights not more than five kilograms. She has also remained deprived of immunization. “She has received only two vaccines but I don´t know its type,” her mother said.
Her other four children, Ram 13, Shyam, 11, Kabita, 9, and Sabita, 8, are living at an NGO hostel at Dallu. “Seeing our plight, a foreigner had taken them to the hostel three years ago,” she said.
During Dashain, the children would come to the squatter settlement to be with their parents.
Shivadevi and her husband are badly perturbed by the feeling that they are living in limbo. She said her older children are well aware of their condition. “They saw the demolition of the squatter settlement on television,” she said
Bimala Tamang, 57, has a similar story. After the government sent bulldozers to raze the settlement her husband Baburam has gone insane. He breaks the kitchen utensils that they were able to save from the bulldozers. They have grown up children but she and her husband continue to live in the squatter settlement. Her two daughters and two sons are married. The youngest, a son, is unmarried but he also does not live with them. Her sons know about the condition of their parents but do not come to see them.
As she does not have a citizenship certificate Bimala remains deprived of the compensation distributed by the government. The Government had offered Rs 15,000 as relief to each squatter family.
Similarly, Hira Lal Pashwan and his family also remain deprived of government relief. Pashwan had taken Rs 20,000 in loan from Mahalaxmi Cooperative at Teku to built his shack and offered his citizenship certificate for surety. He remains unable to pay off his debt. They demand citizenship for filling the squatter relief form,” he said.
Like Pashwan, a lot of squatters are deprived of government relief for lack of citizenship.
The squatters complain that the government has left them in a lurch. After the bulldozing of the squatter settlement, Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai visited the site and pledged food and shelter to the squatters. He promised to resettle them at Chovar, but people from Kirtipur Municipality have opposed the plan.
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