Housing Rights and The Law 2021

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For 40 years now governments have been brutally bulldozing the jhuggies of the working class. Along with the homes the schools are smashed, the dispensaries are destroyed, the playgrounds are ground into dust and when the dust settles one can see the young and the old alike broken and helpless as they sit on piles of bricks. The Indian state is as cruel and ruthless as our colonial masters once were. The adoption of the Constitution has not made the slightest change in the lives of the homeless and slum dwellers. Even though lawyers and judges can be proud of the decisions of the Supreme Court on the right to housing, the reality is that no court in the country is willing to enforce these judgments, brilliant though they are. This is the harsh reality of the Indian legal system that courts can again and again close their eyes to judgments in favour of the poor such as the Hawker's Rights cases. A victory on paper while demolitions and evictions carry on with apartheid ferocity is hardly any consolation for the poor. How many tens of thousands of men, women and children have died during these demolitions will never be known? How many times more must lawyers suffer the insults of judges calling slum dwellers "land grabbers" while the real land grabbers with money and political power are treated with kid gloves. The truth is there is no justice in India despite the grand sounding words in the judgments. No justice for the poor; ever. As the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) publishes this book "Housing Rights and The Law", it is fitting that we spend some time writing about one of the most cruel demolitions of about 100,000 persons in Khori Gaon in Haryana. The reason for the demolition was that this colony was on forest land. Demolition was ordered without considering rehabilitation first contrary to so many judgements particularly Sudama Singh's case and Ajay Maken's case. This is particularly galling since it has been laid down by the Supreme Court, no less that rehabilitation must precede demolition.

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