India: Letter to CM Delhi protesting women’s loss of livelihoods due to Jahangirpuri demolitions

To: Shri Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi 5 May 2022

Subject: Loss of women’s livelihoods and Jahangirpuri Demolitions

Dear Shri Kejriwal:

We the undersigned academics, policy advisors, and civil society practitioners, all working on aspects of Gender and the Economy in India, are deeply shocked by the spate of demolitions carried out by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation in the Jahangirpuri resettlement colony on April 20, 2022.

The most tragic victims of this targeted demolition are extremely poor working women, many are widows, who had barely begun to eke out a living again after facing severe economic and personal losses under COVID-19.

The bulldozers did not simply destroy these women’s meagre tenaments; they destroyed even the small assets they used for their livelihoods. Handcarts, cycle carts, fruit stalls, gumtis, even makeshift wooden tables on which some displayed minor items for sale were not spared. Most of the women here work in the kabaadi chain - rag-picking, sorting or selling. They collect waste from nearby colonies, transport it on thelas, sort it, and pack it in boris. Their hazardous work of garbage disposal is essential for Delhi’s health and survival. Even their boris and thelas were crushed. How can movable thelas parked on the road be termed