Medha Patkar is fasting for the rights of the poor whose homes in Mumbai’s Golibar are being razed. People’s lives are at stake. Is anyone paying attention, asks Sunaina Kumar. Her 84-year-old mother told her just before she went on yet another indefinite fast, “Why are you fasting again, Medha? Nobody is bothered about it.” “She’s very worried for me, but she is also the one who tells me to be strong,” Medha Patkar says in broken whispers on day six of a fast she has undertaken for housing rights of the urban poor in Mumbai. ‘Medhatai’, as she is lovingly called by her band of followers, lies on a mat which serves as a makeshift bed in the middle of the rubble and broken stones, all that is left of the lives and homes of people in the latest round of demolition at Ganesh Krupa Society, a basti in Golibar, the second largest slum cluster in Mumbai and the epicentre of Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan. “Maybe no one cares, but I can’t sleep at night. I have no option but to protest, I feel so tense to think people are on the street, children in the open. Urbanisation has moved towards deprivation and destitution of the majority.” The debilitating fatigue in her voice suddenly gives way to a burst of energy. She addresses the protestors, chides them for not being louder, “Kya aap bhi anshan par hain?” On the sixth day, she is displaying symptoms of nausea, vomiting, back and body ache, and everyone is concerned. The gherao of women from the basti take turns to press her feet and back. Tai frets about those who are on relay fast with her, urging them to drink water from her steel katori. There is a practiced ease with which the residents of Golibar and their supporters from other bastis in Mumbai are undertaking this protest, as if they have been assigned their parts and are familiar with the script. The men sit on the fringe wearing an expression of equanimity, they join the singing and the sloganeering, but are otherwise content to sit patiently. Some of the protestors have been a part of Patkar’s Andolan for nearly a decade, ever since the first round of slum demolitions was unleashed in Mumbai in 2004 by Vilasrao Deshmukh’s government. No wonder the script is familiar. “Chale jao, chale jao, builder raj chale jao”, “Builder raj ki tanashahi nahin chalegi”, the voices erupt every few minutes. The women, on the other hand, are charged up, talk to each other and from time to time seek an audience with Tai. Rabia Sheikh has been a part of the Andolan since its inception. Though she is barely educated, Sheikh is articulate, aware of her rights and displays a spark of feminism. She points out the women who form the spine of the movement, Meera Tai, Mamta Mausi, Prerna Bahin, women who had never stepped out of their homes until those very homes were threatened. “Through the Andolan we learnt to question and fight the police, the state, and, in the process, we began to fight for our personal rights. We stand up against our husbands if they try to oppress us,” says the 38- year-old mother of three. Madhuri Shivkar, a resident of Sion Koliwada is on her fourth day of fasting. Shivkar gave up her job in a travel agency to work with Patkar on the Andolan. “Working with Tai is inspiring and keeping up with her is very challenging,” she says. Fighting against all odds Medha Patkar This is the second fast undertaken by Patkar at Golibar, a prime piece of real estate, made up of 140 acres of land and located next to the domestic airport in land-starved Mumbai. The one in 2011 lasted for nine days, and brought attention to the plight of the residents who were served eviction notices in 2010 by the unlawfully-appointed developers Shivalik Ventures, their consent built on forged signatures. This time around, there is an air of ennui around the protests with most news outlets devoting minimal space to covering it. On the sixth day, Live News is the only media presence in the crowd. Patkar says the media is partly biased, partly under pressure from the builder-corporate nexus, and for the most part it is disinterested. “We hear about the urban poor when there is a news story, when a building like the one in Mumbra collapses, otherwise we think of them as encroachers. We need to get the message across to the middle class that eviction is for land grabbing and not development.” ON 2 April, Ajay Maken, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, wrote to Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan to put a halt to demolitions in the city. This recent round of demolitions on 2 and 3 April brought down 43 houses at Ganesh Krupa society, one of the 46 societies in Golibar that house 26,000 families. The society, which has faced six demolition drives in the past year, bears the look of a disaster site — the empty shells of broken-down houses and battered walls; the plastic sheets that form temporary shelters; and, every few feet, hastily-put-together piles of people’s belongings: steel cupboards, television sets, utensils and clothes, all lying in the open sun. Chandrashekhar Mane, a government employee, was lucky to escape the bulldozers every time until this time. His father, who moved to Golibar in 1966, is one of the original settlers of the area. After 43 years of growing up in the same house, he has been rendered homeless. “It took five minutes for them to pull down our house. My mother has still not recovered from the shock. Half of our belongings have been stolen and the rest are rotting in the open.” His wife, son and daughter, and his dependent mother and brother are all living without a roof over their head. They have refused to shift to the transit camp set up by the builder and have reposed all their faith in Medhatai. “We know she will find justice for us. We’ve lost everything, without her we’d lose even hope,” he says as he sets off to protest outside the office of Slum Rehabilitation Authority.