Islamic Bangladesh: Hindu Harijans are evicted without rehabilitation in Dhaka.

Dhaka South City Corporation evicts Hindu Harijans without rehabilitation for building a  Market to be owned by Muslims.  

Sabita Biswas | HENB | Dhaka | June 13, 2024:: In a time when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared that no one in Bangladesh will be homeless, the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) is evicting residents from a part of the Miranjilla Sweeper Colony on Agha Sadeq Road, Banshal, Old Dhaka, without providing them with any alternative housing. These residents are known as Harijans of Hindu faith.

This Hindu Harijan community, brought from the Telugu region of India during British rule, has been living in this colony for several centuries. They were brought here to serve the sanitation of the city’s population. They did not voluntarily settle in Dhaka.

The DSCC has failed to fulfil any of the promises it made to the city’s residents. The City Corporation is partly responsible for the traffic congestion but has done nothing to solve it. Even an hour of rain floods a large part of the southern area, but the DSCC has not recovered the occupied canals to address this. It also failed to protect citizens from mosquitoes and dengue fever. But, in the name of planning and beautification,  the DSCC is ruthlessly  evacuating the poor Harijan people from their homes without any rehabilitation package.

Under the pretext of building a market to be owned by Muslims, the City Corporation is demolishing part of the Harijan colony. The DSCC mercilessly treat the poor people as ‘unwanted’,  who keep the city clean! These poor Harijans are residents of this city, voters of the City Corporation, and citizens of Bangladesh. The Joint Editor and Poet Shorab Hassan has voiced his protest  on this in Pratham Alo Bengali daily,

About four thousand people live in the Miranjilla Sweeper Colony, which includes a temple and a school. People evicted in Monday’s operation by the City Corporation have taken shelter in the nearby temple, school, and community center. Many are living in miserable conditions with children and the elderly.

Although almost all the residents of this colony are sanitation workers for the City Corporation, the authorities have created a division among them. They say that only permanent workers appointed by secretarial orders will receive homes, while temporary workers will not. They are being labeled as illegal. The number of permanent workers is only 40, but there are about 500 families living there. Those who received homes have refused to take the keys, demanding that everyone must be given homes, or else they will not move into the new homes. A  solidarity is seen  in the  Harijan people to get their human rights..

Children of the Harijan community plead not to be evicted. On June 11, the children of the victim Harijan families organised a silent protest at Aga Sadek Road of Banshal police station limits in Bangladesh capital Dhaka.

Harijans are considered ‘untouchables’ in society. No one rents homes to them, and even restaurants and hotels restrict their entry. Previously, it was common to see each sanitation worker carrying a tin mug along with a broom early in the morning on Dhaka’s streets because they were not allowed to sit in the gentlemen’s hotels and restaurants. They had to bring tea from the restaurant to drink from the tin mug. This is how the so called upper caste people  have maintained ‘racism’ in the society.

Evicting anyone without providing alternative housing is not only inhumane but also illegal. The constitution recognizes food, clothing, housing, education, and healthcare as fundamental rights. Yet, the Dhaka South City Corporation wants to achieve development by evicting poor Harijans. They do not even feel the need to discuss with those who have been there for hundreds of years.

Now the question arises, Why this cruel treatment towards those who keep this city of 1.5 crore residents clean?

The DSCC has previously destroyed several sweeper colonies to build multi-storied buildings. During elections, these people are needed, but once the elections are over, no one cares about them. Just think about the dire situation that would arise if these people stopped their city-cleaning work for even one day.

The DSCC is determined to build a multi-storied market in the Miranjilla area. The market means the City Corporation’s jackpot. They can build as many markets as they want, but why demolish Harijans’ homes?

A Harijan leader revealed that the local councilor, whom they elected, is more enthusiastic about building the market. The Harijan leaders wanted the councilor to be present when they submitted a memorandum to the City Corporation, but the councilor refused, citing personal gains from the market, including commissions.

Rana Dasgupta, General Secretary of the Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, also went to the City Corporation with Harijan leaders.

When asked, he said, “The government’s electoral manifesto clearly stated that it would prioritize the advancement of the backward Harijan and poor communities in health, education, and housing. I reminded the City Corporation officials of this and told them that evicting anyone without providing resettlement is illegal. You must arrange for their resettlement first.”

This is not the first time the DSCC has tried to take away the shelters of poor people in the name of eviction.

In February last year, the DSCC attempted to evict the Telugu community residents of Dhaka Metropolitan’s Jatrabari area. The Harijans protested there too, forming human chains. Eventually, intervention from a former railway minister allowed them to stay there.

Will the City Corporation now force poor Harijans to live under the open sky? How long can those who have taken refuge in the school or temple stay there? Neither the temple nor the school is meant for living.

A journalist friend Manoj Dey wrote on Facebook about this shocking incident: “The bulldozer bought with the taxpayers’ money is being used to evict Bangladesh’s most vulnerable community. The City Corporation is evicting the Telugu and Harijan communities from Miranjilla area by labeling them as illegal. Yet, these people have been living there for generations. How cruel can it be to evict such a vulnerable and marginalized community to build a sophisticated market?”

Questions areises, why are those who have lived there for hundreds of years considered illegal as culprit? And those who have just arrived at the City Corporation or the Rohingya infiltrators in Bangladesh are considered as saints and important. The victim people pointed out  this animosity against poor Harijans by the Dhaka South City Corporation!

Shocking enough, in this turmoil of evacuation, an elderly person in  Miranjilla Sweeper Colony died on heart attack yesterday as reported by Janobani media.

The human rights organisations in Bangladesh including Amnesty are silent on the persecution on Hindu Harijans in Bangladesh. Both the ruling party Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) did not feel anything to hear the victimised Harijan people in Dhaka.
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__Inputs from Pratham Alo and Janobani.