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It was
in 1992 that unprecedented riots shredded the
cosmopolitan nature of Bombay.
We
watched with horror the adjoining shops that were
owned by Muslims, getting gutted, the surrounding
Muslim majority slums being razed. And suddenly the
gender issue became abstract and the identity
politics became more complex and overwhelming. We
and Majlis changed forever. |
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The desperation made us venture into works we were
not even equipped to deal with. Majlis has never
been an organisation involved in community works.
But those were emergency days and we got involved
with a slum called Rajunagar in Bandra, which was
repeatedly gutted by Hindu goons during the 1992-93
riots.
With
the help of a corporate house we re-built those huts
only to be demolished again by the municipality
authority on the pretext of legal technicalities. We
ran from pillar to post, from local police stations
to Mantralaya (State govt. office) for two years and
received a piece of land of 1400 sq. meters in
Dindoshi, Goregaon to rehabilitate the families of
erstwhile Rajunagar. Countering high resistance from
the government officials we managed to register the
huts in the name of women of the families.
But
for us, this project has brought forward many issues
regarding community based social work, sustainable
development and politics of aid. |
