Standing in the remnants of her grocery store, Seema Sagar watches as a young boy jumps from one mound of debris to another, before precariously balancing on a stray brick. All this to safely cross the stream of sewage that now floats outside her house.

On Monday, bulldozers razed down more than 1,000 small shops and homes to make way for a wall that will encircle all three camps in the slum cluster: Bhumiheen, Nehru and Navjeevan. Four hundred metres of the proposed 2-km wall are already in place, under construction by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) since December. “We are acting on an order from the High Court,” says DDA’s executive engineer K K Khanna.

And the High Court was responding to a petition filed by Arsh Avtaar Singh, former president of Kohinoor Apartments’ Resident Welfare Association, in May 2005. The petition sought a solution against encroachment of roads and services by slum residents.

‘Block them out’
Neighbouring middle-class colonies support Singh’s efforts. A flat-owner from nearby Konark Apartments, who does not want to be named, says: “All my life savings have been used to purchase this flat. For 22 years I have lived with the stink from open defecation, and constant over-crowding from blocked roads.”

Residents want slum dwellers to be relocated in ‘pukka’ housing. “I feel bad for them,” says Singh, whose own domestic help lives in Bhumiheen Camp. “They should be given an alternative home immediately.”

But the DDA claims it needs time to relocate the slum dwellers. “The wall is a temporary arrangement to offer protection to flat owners,” Khanna says.

In the interim, Daliwal thinks the wall should be built higher. “It should be at least eight foot high, and built either with bricks, or grills and mesh. There should also be fewer outlets.”

‘Livelihood gone’
The camp’s residents, though, are fuming. “We were given no warning,” says Sagar. She claims to have bought her grocery shop for Rs 20,000 rupees 13 years ago. “I make Rs 50 a day, through which I cook for my family. We have nothing to eat today without my shop.”

Trying to salvage broken chairs and cutlery from his former confectionery store, Izhar Ali asks, “What should I do to earn? Can the government give me an alternative?”

As an MCD employee sprays mosquito repellent into stagnant water forming pools around the newly homeless, Kamla Ujhain forlornly watches her grandchildren eat in what used to be a bathroom. “We knew it would close our businesses,” says Maya Devi, peering outside her shop, now shrouded by bricks. “And what if there’s a fire?” asks another shopkeeper, Naresh Kumar. “It will be much harder to escape if we are contained from all sides.”

DDA’s Khanna, meanwhile, insists there will be several entry and exit points in the wall. “There are more than 17 gaps in the 400-metre stretch built so far,” he says.