Shah Pur Jat -a study
by Vatavaran
Introduction:
NGO-Vatavaran, recipient of Best Practices Award by UNCHS [United Nations Cell for Human Settlements] in the year 2000 and 2006 is working from Shah Pur Jat for making it to become a model urban village.
During the last two years we have collected base data, formulated a long term work plan and initiated the work to make Shahpur Jat a sustainable, ecologically developed, empowered, peaceful and pleasant urban village where the businesses will flourish, shopping will be a pleasure, jobs will be generated for poorest of the poor and backward classes and residents will be coconscious citizens. It is the first ever attempt and will become a benchmark in the country
History:
According to the elders of the village10, 000 years ago (8000 years BC), some Hindu king founded the area where present day Shah Pur Jat is located. There was a fort and palace here, however 5000 years back when ‘Pandavs’ built Indraprastha; they took the stones of that fort. The excavations in the Old Fort area confirm the belief that Purana Quila was built on the site of Indraprastha, the capital of Pandavs.
Tomars (Hindu Clan) ruled Delhi In 11th century AD, in 12th century AD, Prithviraj Chowan was the ruler, until his defeat later that century replacing Hindu rule by Muslim. Allauddin Khilji, founded SIRI -the first Moslem city of Delhi in 1303.It was fortified, beautiful and prosperous, but the later rulers devastated it by taking the building material of Siri for the new structures they got built. Today only parts of its wall, hawelies made with lime and mortar, mosques and some historical a village, now in haryana shifted to SPJ area. About 900 hundred years back, Dagar clan from Indri –a village, now in Haryana shifted to Shahpur Jat area. The fertile land and their agriculture skill helped them accumulate wealth in no time, attracting Panwar clan and other castes to the area which by then was called Shah (wealth) Pur (Colony) Jat (a clan), meaning by locality of the rich Jats.The fertile land and their agricultural skills helped them accumulate wealth in no time, attracting Pawar clan and other castes to the area which by then had acquired the name SPJ
Basics:
Total Area - 4.5 Km. Sq // Inhabited area - 1.75 Km. Sq//Area per house hold- 40 –200 Sq. Mt. // Parks 8( open area – 20% , green area .1%) Schools – 3 (Nagar Nigam Prathmik Vidyalaya Boys, Nagar Nigam Prathmik VidyalayaGirls, Sarvodaya Co-ed. Higher Secondary School, students 3,000 // Govt –dispensaries or health centre- none./ /Private clinics 11( allopathic- , homeopathic- , Arruvedic- , Quakes- ) owners- 15000// Jats households about- 300 ,Harijans/ Balmiikies- 100, Badhai, Baniya, Kumhar, Nai- 250// Non owners- 15000// Householders per house- 46// Number of Households- 650//
Problems
1.Haphazard growth
There is no original single story mud house with a yard. The houses are of concrete, yards covered, expanded in which ever direction they could, covering them to rentable ugly, lightless and suffocating matchboxes. The 50% population--migrant labor lives here, household industrial units for embroidery, mirror work , tailoring, dyeing, printing etc thrive along with eating joints , kitchens for migrant labor, tea stalls and grocery shops
The houses along the periphery or lanes broad enough to walk, have converted the land use pattern to become commercial areas. The basements and ground floors are rented to fashion boutiques, hi-fi house hold products, designer furniture etc.If it’s a big family they live on other floors, small family lives on 1st floor, renting the upper two or three. .
2.ThrowAway Culture
The adoption of throwaway culture by the residents has led to multiple problems. Around 15 metric tons of plastics in the form of plastic packaging materials, multi colored carry bags, mineral water and cold-drink bottles, old toys, squeezable tubes, cups, glasses, milk sachets, razors and ball pens etc. are being indiscriminately discarded. Most of these (specially the carry bags) find their way in open sewers where they block waste water leading to explosions of sewer lines due to the blocked methane gas produced underneath.
3.Congessed roads
The vehicles are chocking its roads . We learnt that the rate at which vehicles increased in Shah Pur Jat is inversely proportionate to the rate, at which its green areas decreased..
4.Water stress
The village is in water stress zone. On one hand there is not enough water to drink for most residents on the other hand there is excessive water wastage by prominent rich .
5. Garbage
Land is being smothered by household garbage. Indiscriminate dumping,has converted 5 percent land in this already land starved village to wasteland. The area has over 35 MCD employees to collect the garbage generated and sweep the roads. 5 refuse trucks are supposed to empty out the garbage from the five Dhalaovs Still, 70% of its 500 metric tons of garbage produced every day remaines unclear.
6. Class and Caste effects
Our base data shows the worse affected are the women of the backward classes in the village. The caste and class division is very distinct in this historic village. The backward classes in Shahpur Jat live in a demarcated area of the village. They have their own temple and Panchayat, as they are not allowed in the mains. There is an urgent need to empower these women through self-help groups and micro enterprises. This would, affect their families and the village the most. Our awareness campaigns will change their attitude make them feel important. Our aim to make Shahpur Jat a model urban village would start with the lowest in the hierarchy.
Action plan:
Formation of village committees- various committees such as women, youth, businesses etc to address issues concerning them.
-Awareness programme for residents to understand the maladies of haphazard growth and over crowding. Introducing the concept of making the havelies in to ‘bed and breakfast places’ instead of child labor factories.
-Work towards making Shah Pur Jat a Zero plastic zone with the cooperation of business houses and residents.
-Improve, repave and rectify mismanagement of roads with the help of the concerned departments of the government. Organizing haphazard parking by awareness campaign on ‘Your basement – your parking area’; training interested youth in traffic control, getting spaces allocated as parking lots and handing them over to the interested youth of the village as their enterprise.
-Rainwater harvesting- Roof top rain water harvesting at the governmental schools, offices and all other feasible places. Teaching reduce , reuse and conservation of water to house holders.
-Cleaning , greening , land scaping the waste land patches , streets , exterior and ways to various businesses , village chopals and eating areas . To make shopping in SPJ an exquisite experience. Use of Solar Energy for street lightings to help the shoppers and residents alike.
-Bio -gas plants- Approximately dung from 4 cows can cook food for a family of 15. There are villagers who own cows and buffaloes they would be persuaded to set up biogas plants.
Programmes
-Programs for Youths- setting of a centre for physical, mental and spiritual upliftment, computer literacy, career counseling, personality development.
-Programs for Women – Training women for greening, kitchen gardening, making of paper and paper machee products and micro enterprises.
-Programme for the rehabilitation of Drugs and drinks addicts..
-Programme for school children -Home work hour.
Problems being faced:
Vatavaran started work in Shah Pur Jat as it was challenging and no model existed. Many individuals and organizations are working in rural villages but none in the urban villages. We have taken up this work but of all our work this one faced the most acute resistance.Resistance from house owners
Rich dominating residents have encroached land and/or undertake illegal activities thus resist any intervention.The not so well offs have been dejected with the government’s attitude, hollow promises of Non Government Organizations and the apathy of the local leaders. They are angry with: the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for accumulated garbage, blocked sewers, Jal Board for allowing the abuse of the water connections by selected few and insufficient dirty water for the rest, Bharat Electrical for absence or insufficient street lights and the higher officials for their apathy.
We are facing the wrath of their anger.
Resistance from the Businesses
The shop,officeor the show room owners who spend the day there but do not stay there care too hoots.They want only those aspects of the village to improve, which would better their business, and for that want to contribute minimally. Office goers are insensitive to the village and small grocery shopkeepers/ residents cannot contribute their time or money.
Resistance from the labour in household industries
The working class of the household industries are mostly Bangladeshi immigrants. They lead a insecure, fearful lives thus refuse to communicate, leave aside any contribution.
Resistance from the local MCD workers
There is corruption among the MCD employees. Each of the 35 employees has a fixed number of workers under their wing. These workers collect the waste from door to door and deposit it in the Dhalow. For the work they do they get a meagre amount from their employees, who in turn get a much higher amount from the residents. The MCD employees resist any one doing any work in the village because of the fear of being caught in their illegal practices or loosing out on their extra income.
Resistance from local leaders
The local leaders of different political parties do not let any work to progress lest the credit goes to their opposition. For example we faced acute resistance from the Ex Mayor who did not let us start even a waste management scheme.
Resistance from Schools
The Government schools do not want to be part of any programmes meant for the betterment of the students or school, as it is not going to affect their pay cheque,& the order must come from the government , which does not reply any such requests.
Resistance from quakes and contractors
The innumerable quakes shy away from any aware person as it could reveal their quirkiness. The contractors fear the raids on the bonded child labor they have brought from Bengal.
Resources
The initial resources to start our work at Shah Pur Jat have been managed from Vatavaran’s already well-established waste management schemes.
Vatavaran’s two de centralized waste management schemes are in Jawaharlal Nehru University and University of Delhi South campus. At both the places the monthly emoluments for Vatavaran teams comes from the respective administrations. Our teams collect the waste from house to house, segregate it into biodegradable and recyclables compost the biodegradable and sell the recyclables. The money that we get from the kabari is being used as rent for an office in Shahpur Jat, as pay for the researchers employed to collect data.
However, this amount is not going to help us reach anywhere. Vatavaran would need external funds from Sponsors, Donors and from funding agencies.
For meeting the requirements of the heavy funds needed for the total implementation of our objectives Vatavaran requests every household, shop, office, man, woman and child to help out.
It has been realized that the active support and participation of existing residents is essential for the long-term success of our programme from the planning to the implementation stage.
We believe that the development of an area is based on profound human needs. Living in clean and well-managed surroundings would become local pride and will allow undertaking of other desirable changes for the enhancement of the amenities and improvement of the inhabitant’s quality of life.
The Team
Ravinder Singh Head Supervisor
Raj Kumar Supervisor
Shashi Kumar Supervisor
Deepak Kumar Office assistant
Harinder Pawar Field assistant
Achievements till now:
-Urban Greening- The road sides , the individual yards and the parks were barren with much scope for plantations of trees, household plants and park plants. We have been undertaking this since the last monsoons.
-Our plans of rainwater harvesting using old dried up wells came to a halt as the selected well gave away.
-Work in collaboration of the MCD was under way. Removal of Malba from roadsides , parks and lanes was undertaken..
-The main roads were paved last year , but, unfortunately they already need repaving as the work undertaken by the contractor was sub standard and inspite of Vatavaran’s request neither the MCD nor the contractors wanted Vatavaran workers around during the work hours.
-Sewage system had almost collapsed in SPJ. Situation is better in most areas after Vatavaran’s intervention and laying of new sewage pipes.
-With our intervention, Delhi Jal Board changed the rusted, leaking water pipes thus improving water quality and quantity
-Health camps and protective gears to the local rag pickers helped them physically and mentally.
-We were in touch with DWM (Delhi Waste Management) to sort out the problem of Garbage which does not get cleared in time. It worked for some time but it has become worse recently.
