Faiths Act

“Are you ALL going to J.J colony, Ghevra?” A woman asked us, with an incredulous look on her face as though we’d asked the driver of the shared auto to take us to the wrong place. When we convinced her that Ghevra was indeed our destination, she said “Achha aap log kisi sanstha se honge” (Oh! So you all have come from some NGO) and before we could respond, her tone and demeanour completely changes and she continues, “haan ji ab toh yahaan NGO wale hi kuch badlaav la sakte hai” (Only NGO can bring some change into the situation here). What she meant by “here” was Ghevra.

A hot Sunday afternoon and that was our first visit to Ghevra – a slum resettlement colony on the fringes of the national capital, a revolting result of the preparation to the commonwealth games. Families and whole settlements were shifted from the heart of the city to this extreme periphery without even the provision of basic drinking water or a primary health centre.

The metro ride to the far end of the city (after which we had to take a shared auto) should’ve been a clue as to what lay ahead. Here, one bids adieu to the magnificence of the city’s huge apartment buildings, malls, office complexes and then a 20 minute ride to Ghevra abruptly projects an image which is a stark contrast to our increasingly “urbanized” and “modernized” city of Delhi.

Read this article in its entirety at youthkiawaaz.com