Families of those tending to thoroughbreds live in veritable hell

Almost every family in the slum has at least one member employed as horse groom in the Royal Western India Turf Club Ltd (RWITC) for the past several years. While the grooms get designated ‘quarters’ the RWITC has labeled their families as unauthorized squatters.

Forty-year-old Maruti Sathe’s tin dwelling lies adjacent to a passage, which is a combination of slush, stagnant drainage water and decaying garbage. “I have stayed for here 30 years and have never seen this backyard dry. Rainwater dilutes the slush, which seeps into the house and floods it,” said Sathe who has been suffering from tuberculosis for the past nine months.

His elder brother Krishna Sathe was partially paralysed after developing a fever. Both the brothers tended to horses in the racecourse, but are unable to resume work due to their health conditions.

“In the last three decades, no official either from RWITC or the Cantonment has visited this area. While our family members work and travel with the horses, we are forced to stay behind in these conditions,” said Rupa Kamble, one of the residents.

Six hundred-plus residents live in these rickety tin dwellings that have drainage water seeping inside and flooded open gutters flowing outside their homes. “In 17 years I have not seen any change in the schedule. For six months we have to pester the watchman to switch on the electricity connections, which he does begrudgingly at night. But once the horses come in, electricity connections immediately snap into place,” said Rama Jaiswal one of the residents.

Dr Prakash Dube-Patil, who has been treating the racecourse workers and their families for over 15 years said that water-borne and skin diseases are abundant among them. “Besides the common cold and flu, they frequently contract typhoid, jaundice, malaria and scabies due to unclean water. I tackle around 20 typhoid cases, 40 malaria cases and 15-20 malaria cases from that area, every month,” said Dube-Patil.

Neither does the RWITC care nor does the Pune Cantonment Board bother to maintain the area, said Pradeep Pardeshi, a social worker of the area who recently approached the PCB about the issue. The PCB Chief Health Superintendent V S Kulkarni clarified that as the area was in private hands, the maintenance was also the RWITC’s responsibility. “If some one formally complains to us about a potential epidemic risk, we will send a notice to the RWITC suggesting corrective measures,” he said.

According to RWITC officials, no accommodation had been formally granted to the families of the grooms. B N Nanjappa, the RWITC Estate Officer asserted that the plot had been taken on lease from the Defence Estates and that the ‘residents’ were staying illegally.