Community kitchen set up in Dhobi Ghat

New Delhi: Months after people of Dhobi Ghat community in Batla House were left homeless after their Jhuggis were demolished, community kitchen services were started for a steady income.

Before the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) directed its JCBs towards this nondescript locality, Dhobi Ghat was home to about 1,000 people, mostly working as construction workers, rickshaw-pullers and domestic labourers.

While many people have left, few families still stay in a makeshift jhuggi.

The community kitchen feeds about 300 people per day. "We started the community kitchen four days back for the people of Dhobi Ghat. With their house demolished and pandemic going side by side they had no way to fend themselves off," a member of AISA said.

The community kitchen has been started in collaboration with AICCTU, AISA and RYA.

For residents this is a small ray of hope who till now have been living in deplorable conditions. "We are living in pathetic conditions, but this community kitchen will help us a little bit. We have children and elderly to feed, this will help us establish in a little way," a resident of Dhobi Ghat said.

Despite numerous assurances, the people of Dhobi Ghat Jhuggis have not received any help from the government. The residents of the area have also conducted various protests, however their pleas for relief have gone unheard.

In early June, the Delhi High Court remarked that Dhobi Ghat Jhuggi Dwellers cannot be left on the streets to fend for themselves, finding themselves evicted from a place where they claim to have been living for the past two decades. Noting that due arrangements must be made immediately, the Bench of Justice Najmi Waziri directed the Delhi government to make necessary arrangements for them and the costs of the same would be reimbursed by the DDA.