THE eviction of cleaners from their colony in Old Town of Dhaka where they have lived since the British era with no rehabilitation plans is deplorable. Dhaka鈥檚 south city authorities have conducted the eviction drive at the Miranzilla Harijan Sweepers Colony at Bangshal since June 10 and have already demolished a few buildings and evicted more than two dozen families. The authorities are reported to be continuing the eviction drive to evict about 100 families from among the 400 families living there to expand the kitchen market of the area. The drive has created a heart-rending situation in the colony where already one cleaner, aged 55, is reported to have died of stroke, worrying for the future of his family, and another attempted to commit suicide. Others are also living in constant fear as they do not know who will be evicted or where they will live after the eviction. The ward councillor has, as the resident cleaners allege, threatened them to leave the place quietly while a delegation of the Bangladesh Harijan Unity Council alleged that the mayor did not even meet them when they went to see him.
The mayor, meanwhile, seeks to explain the rationality of the drive, saying that the decision to expand the kitchen market was made in February 2016 and they have started implementing the project now. What beats the logic is that when the decision was made eight years ago, why have the authorities not arranged for the rehabilitation of the cleaners? The city authorities, however, say that the documented cleaners will be rehabilitated. This brings to the fore a couple of issues. Cleaners earlier evicted have not yet been rehabilitated and the authorities are reported to have terminated the job of some cleaners to make them undocumented, making them ineligible for rehabilitation. Most of about 150 families evicted from the Gopibagh Harijan and Telugu Colony in Dhaka in 2019 and 2023 as part of the Padma Bridge rail link project are yet to be properly rehabilitated. Such eviction without rehabilitation, therefore, appears an injustice and a violation of rights of the community, one of the most marginalised, vulnerable and disadvantaged. The sorry state of the cleaners, who do the hazardous job of keeping the city clean but are poorly paid and largely ignored, appears to be the dark side of the development model that the government has pursued where people are evicted and are never properly compensated or rehabilitated.
The city authorities must, therefore, stop pulling down buildings of the colony and arrange for the proper rehabilitation of all cleaners who would be evicted. The authorities must also adequately compensate and rehabilitate families evicted from the Gopibagh Harijan and Telugu Colony.