Personal reflections on the Korail Eviction

Hundreds of houses destroyed, thousands of people walking about with frustration in their eyes, some are gathered in processions… house wares, broken furniture scattered on the ground along with pieces of broken bricks and tin sheets. Houses of 1000 families in Korail slum has been destroyed yesterday. Two of the families lost their youngest child when their dwelling places were being crushed by the bulldozers. According to the newspapers, “170 decimal lands reclaimed from Korail Slum, which were grabbed illegally by some people and organisation. This land is owned by PWD, BTCL and ICT. Though this slum gives the living place to garments workers, day labourers, housemaids, rickshaw pullers and other lower class people, criminals are also active here.” This is the picture portrayed by the unbiased, fact based news papers. Unfortunately, what I have seen with my eyes has put me into the age old contradiction — pragmatism vs. humanity.It is difficult to accept that thousands of families are being forced to become homeless by the state. In four hours these people have lost everything – business capital to utensils. The land does not belong to these poor people, true. They were living there illegally and a large number of them are involved in crimes; that also are true. But it’s also true that lack of proper housing and job opportunities have lead them to where they are now.Rahima, a housemaid and a single mother of an eight year old, couldn’t hold her tears while telling her story. Her husband died few years ago. She works hard to earn a living for her son and herself without any support from anyone else. This eviction has put her in greater uncertainty destroying her only shelter. Amena, a day labourer and mother of three children were telling how she did not want to leave her belongings even in front of the bulldozer. ‘I had toiled so hard to buy all those things, how can I let go of them?’

These people came into this town losing their lands in river erosion, harvest in floods, and homestead to the local money lenders. Within Korail it’s an entire community- they run tea stalls, grocery stores, tailoring shops, clothes stores- a whole bunch of economic activities. What alternative is offered to them? Without providing a substitution, evicting these ‘criminals’ would make sure that they become one.

Tonny Nowshin
BRAC Communications

“ I was at work, a neighbor called on my cell phone saying my house has been bulldozed, I rushed back only to find my bed, TV, tin walls and roof all lying on a heap”; “My job cleaning various house-holds allowed me to  come home in the afternoon and to my dismay found my home – gone. My once home was simply bundled up on a corner.”, “I have been sitting under the open sky the whole night with my five children, I couldn’t go to work today and will lose my job if I don’t resume work tomorrow. But where do I leave my children? My home is gone” , “Our men haven’t gone to work since yesterday, what shall we feed our children? We don’t have any money to buy food or even relocate to a new place”.

Walking down a bit of Korail road today morning I was came across all these horrifying tales. I tried to envision for a bit ~ going back home today at 6 from work find my home gone. But, God forbid, that will hopefully never be the case. “If they informed us a day earlier, we would have moved out”, someone said. “We only had some khichuri (rice mixed with lentils) yesterday; all of us along with our children are starving since then as our pots and stoves, food, money all have been crushed.” When my boss asked me to come with him to Korail to see the situation, to be honest, at first I wasn’t too keen. After going there it struck me – I return home in the afternoon, my safest spot on earth and I find it’s gone, that’s my worst nightmare which has struck these poor people. But, will this ever fall under our list of humanitarian crisis?

Eviction is by all means legal, I agree. There is every right to evict illegal occupants. But, what is not right is not be informed of the eviction earlier. One has every right to know before his/her home is torn apart. These are homes of thousands who play a big role in our lives. A rickshaw-puller I was talking to told me   “if our wives and sisters don’t clean your homes, can you attend your office on time and work? If we don’t have a place to live, how can we work and feed our family”. True, I can’t function without my domestic aid. True, I can’t walk far in the roads of Dhaka without getting on a rickshaw. True, our garments industry won’t be thriving as usual without its cheap labour residing in all the Korails of Dhaka city. Also true, these are all illegal occupancy thus needs to be evicted.  Another Kokrail will soon be on the making as we couldn’t tell these people where to go build a home.

Someone said two children were crushed alive as they were sleeping peacefully inside their shanties while their parents left for the day. When the bulldozer came, the neighbours who always look after the children of households with working parents, in the rush to save their belongings, completely forgot about these sleeping children. As a result, when the mother came, buried under her heap of household goods, discovered two crushed bodies of her sons. This is not eviction. A conscious mind and any civilized world will label this as murder in the name of eviction. Without an eviction plan, these homeless people will make it to the street for which they can’t be really blamed. I remember every time I went to Korail slum before, I asked people randomly why have you come leaving behind your village? Don’t you want to go back? Everyone always answered “apa, I have only come to Dhaka as there is no work in the village. If there is ever any opportunity in my village, I will leave this city right away and be near my own people”. I think the problem of urbanization is a natural occurrence happening all over the world in every big city and we cannot really stop it. These people are already poor. The least we can do is add to their every day struggle for survival the stress of being uncertain if they’ll find their homes and children in one piece after returning home from a hard day at work.

Tasfiyah Jalil
BRAC Communications