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AID - India Partners NAPM Press Release Slum Dwellers Rebuild Houses in Mumbai 1st August 2005  Rebuilding at Mandala (Pic:
Joe Athialy)
Hundreds of people have fallen ill. Large turnout has been witnessed in the medical camps run by NAPM, with volunteer doctors from Tata Institute of Social Sciences helping them. Unless immediate medical help is rushed to the slums, where people are still living in the slush and unhygienic circumstances, the city would face break out of an epidemic. The government had promised to legalise all slums till year 2000 after a very long agitation by the people. They also promised rehabilitation before the monsoon. With the surveys not being complete and rehabilitation not in sight, the slum dwellers decided to build back their homes to protect themselves from heavy torrential rains. Yesterday (July 31), police dismantled the community kitchen run by slum dwellers’ organisations and confiscated food grains. They also caned the protesting women, including a pregnant woman and arrested three protesters. Medha Patkar and other activists from NAPM are camping in Mandala and other slums to oversee relief operations. People are in dire need of food, medicines and plastics-sheets. We appeal for volunteers (doctors, medical professionals, social workers) and also help in cash and kind. Please send your cheques to Narmada Nav Nirman Abhiyan C/o Pervin Jehangir, 265 Jupiter Apartments, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai. Phone: 022 22184779; Email: pjehangir@gmail.com. (Please write ‘Monsoon Relief’ in a note with the cheques). For more pictures, visit: http://initiativeindia.tripod http://initiativeindia.tripod Pervin Jehangir Simpreet Singh |