It’s a neighbourhood spread over 14 acres in South Delhi whose residents include professors, teachers, doctors, government officials, corporate professionals, businessmen and students. While Jamia Nagar’s 3.75 lakh residents, nearly 90 per cent of who are Muslims, aspire for a better education and a better life, the infrastructure and facilities in the area have failed to keep pace.

When he is not at the computer-coaching centre that he runs from the basement of his building or working as a part-time insurance agent, Abdul Mannan of Nafees Road near Batla House goes around collecting bills of the 200-odd residents who live along the street that reeks of sewage.   

With 13 Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in Jamia Nagar trying to get certificates of regularisation for unauthorised pockets, Mannan says forming an RWA is key to solving their problems. It would also end the daily spat he has with residents of the “illegal hostel” opposite his flat.

“Since we live in an unauthorised area, there are no building laws, no security checks and, now with the Batla House incident, anyone can point fingers at us,” he says. “If we have an RWA, we can push the authorities to get things done; if the colonies are regularised, we can bring in some order.”

Mannan shifted to Jamia Nagar in the mid-nineties after working briefly in Saudi Arabia. His wife is a government schoolteacher and son a first year B-Tech student at Jamia Millia Islamia. Living in an unauthorised colony brings its set of problems. For instance, Mannan cannot get an auto loan on his current address.  

“I live in Jamia Nagar but the address with my bank for an auto loan is my office in Chandni Chowk because I live in an illegal colony. We need to get rid of the tag and half our problems will end,” he says.  

As in the case of most unauthorised colonies, Jamia Nagar depends mainly on money channelled through the MLA and municipal councillors’ funds for development. The area has one MLA, two municipal councillors and one MP, but a look at the funds diverted here (see box) tells you why Iram Naqvi, a teacher in a private school in South Delhi, finds Jamia Nagar a “civic mess”.   

“We have to wade through sewage water when it rains and in the last seven years, I have never seen garbage being removed or roads being swept,” she says.     

Though neighbouring colonies get water from the Sonia Vihar pipeline, Jamia Nagar residents have to buy 20-litre water jars as the water they get from private boring wells is contaminated. “The water is so bad that sometimes we have to buy water even for bathing. It costs us Rs 200 a day,” says Syed Asad Moin, president of the federation of RWAs.

Abeeda, a housewife near Batla House, says she has to stay up till 2 am to fill water since her children leave for school early. “The water is the cleanest then,” she says.  

The reasons behind the mess, says Mannan, is that most of Jamia Nagar — like many unauthorised colonies — has come up on land that belonged to seven villages around what is today Okhla village. The Jamia campus was set up in 1924 and areas like Zakir Bagh and Tikona Park were developed to cater to university staff.

“Migration intensified during the late nineties after the ’92 riots,” Mannan says. “Local villagers who were mainly Gurjjars, Yadavs and Ghosis living along the banks of the Yamuna began to sell off their land to people migrating from Old Delhi and later builders moved in.”

As illegal construction mushroomed, people began moving here in large numbers. Jamia Nagar’s case, Moin says, is unique in that it’s not a slum, yet its civic amenities are dismal. Most upper middle class families in the area send their children to expensive public schools as far as 17 kilometres away. “We have people from all sections of the society, from rickshawwallas and labourers to middle-class and upper middle-class educated professionals, businessman and students,” he says.

“Jamia Nagar has become a melting pot.”

Nowhere Nagar
WHERE: Nestled between the Yamuna on the east and Mathura Road on the west, the area extends up to Shaheen Bagh near Jasola village and Kalindi Kunj. Jamia Nagar got its name from the neighbouring Jamia Milia Islamia. It has Okhla to its south and Kilokri village near Maharani Bagh to its north.

AREA: 14 acres. Jamia Nagar includes Jamia Milia campus, Tikona Park, Ghaffar Manzil, Gulmohar Avenu e, Abul Fazal Enclave, Batla House, Noor Nagar, Jogabai extension, Johri Farm, Zakir Nagar and Shaheen Bagh.

Zakir Bagh and New Friends colony are its neighbouring colonies.

POPULATION: 3.75 lakh -- 90 per cent Muslim

STATUS: Apart from the Jamia campus, all colonies, including upmarket Zakir Nagar, are unauthorised colonies and on the list for regularisation

ASSEMBLY SEAT: Okhla. Pervez Hashmi (Congress) is the MLA.

PARLIAMENTARY SEAT: South Delhi. Vijay Kumar Malhotra (BJP) is the MP.