Working class communities get little help during Bengaluru floods

The city has done little to help low-income communities

“I shudder every time it rains. Even a moderate amount of rainfall, and water enters our houses,” says Shakunthala, a long-time resident of Cement Colony, J C Road, hardly half a kilometre away from the main office of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) that governs the city.

“Apart from spending sleepless nights trying to drain out water, I have to wait to go to work to get some drinking water. With frequent power cuts, we also have problems with mosquitoes. All our ration gets washed off, our electronic items are constantly at risk of damage. But the worst part is the overflowing manholes that mix with the rainwater. The stench lingers for days," adds Shakunthala.

Many informal settlements across the city continue to struggle after every downpour, but their voices remain submerged.

“Waterlogging has been a regular occurrence for me. This time, the situation was extremely bad, with water levels of 3-4 ft. It reached shoulder length for some of the children. We had a wooden plank and assembled all our children on it so that they could stay safe," says Lalitha, a hair picker.

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Lalitha has been living in a tented house in an informal settlement inside Konappana Agrahara near Electronic City, for the past 12 years. The houses here have no access to clean water, though each family pays a rent of Rs 2,000.

The area is adjacent to some of the big IT companies. "We had no assistance from the government," she adds.

“Cement colony and the surrounding areas are so narrow, and most houses are barely 10/10 in dimension. Most of the items such as drinking water are stored in the space available. When it rains, they face a huge loss, every time, including loss of provisions and possessions," says Raghavendra, Programme Manager, Action Aid.

Contrast in approach

"I have been living in Vinayaknagar for over 25 years, with 30 other families. We are used to water logging after every rain. Earlier when things got bad, as there were not many buildings around, we could find higher ground and sleep till the water receded. Things worsened after many buildings came up in the area. This time the floods were bad. We just sat at home, waiting for over five days... The community decided to pool in money to dig a small hole near the drain so that the water drains out," says Vinay Ganga Raju, a hair picker from Vinayaknagar in Thambu Chetty Palya near K R Puram.

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The flooding in the Mahadevapura and Bommanahalli zones also affected many luxury properties and technology companies. Images of floating luxury cars and videos of residents from upscale areas being evacuated in boats and tractors viral on social media made "Brand Bengaluru" feel attacked. The representatives of the Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) sat down with the government to sort out the problems.

"As usual, the loudest and most privileged voices are dominating the media conversation," says Malini Ranganathan, an Associate Professor at American University who has been researching the city’s wetlands, real estate and informal urbanisation. The lesser-privileged who find no space in the media discourse are the ones who are called upon to clean up the city once the waters have receded, she adds.

In contrast, the city has done little to help the working class community in several areas in the city who usually face nature's brunt, who are hit harder this time. They were not called to any meeting to discuss even basic urban service delivery provisions.

Accounting for exclusions

The absence of planned rescue, rehabilitation and representation of the poor communities points to a flawed system of ensuring equity in relief to flood-affected communities.

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How does one account for these inherent exclusions? “Slum residents living across or near the drain or lake or anywhere in the city need to have political agency and a certain space to exercise it. Why can’t people living in slums be able to participate in imagining a better habitat? We have to move towards dignified housing and citizenship," says Kshithij Urs, Adjunct Professor at the National Law School of India University.

“The 74th Amendment of the Constitution is meant to make cities vibrant democratic units of self-government. This means that even the last person in the largest metropolis has to be provided with adequate space for informed decision-making in the city," he adds.

"In some areas, people were reluctant to move out, for the fear of losing out their belongings. It is not easy for them to lock their house and move out with ease, given that some of the settlements don’t even register as colonies and they lack basic house security,” says Akshatha Prasad, Director of Health Interventions at Hasiru Dala, an NGO working on the welfare of waste-pickers. The NGO has intervened with food and medicines wherever it can.

“In the areas that we identified that house informal settlements, even getting a school opened up for immediate rescue was difficult. The lack of awareness and information about the rescue services and no access to water pumps makes it worse for these communities," explains Nalini Shekar, co-founder of Hasiru Dala. Renting a pump needs Rs 12,000, plus labour and diesel which these communities cannot afford.

“We should take a close look at how peri-urban regions developed post-1990s, how they were “approved” and under whose influence, also what influences. We need to ask what if the guidelines of Town and Country Planning law were complied with and wetlands were made out of bounds for development into commercial and residential neighbourhoods. It’s with such honest, granular examining, backed by an inclusive ward-level disaster management plan with active public involvement that we may ensure the disasters are not repeated," says Bhargavi Rao, a trustee of Environment Support Group.