City needs balance between AKEI, local representatives

Kolis protest demolition of fish markets, like the one at Crawford Market, recently

This paper carried a report about indigenous people, Kolis, Agris and East Indians coming under a common umbrella called AKEI to give greater voice to their long-standing demands like resolution to housing and infra problems, amongst other issues.

Another recent problem is the demolition of fish markets and the festering issue of being lumped together with slums in any housing and redevelopment proposals. They claim delegations have met leaders at various levels but these knotty problems have yet to be acted on. There is also, they claim, a sense of disillusionment amongst the sons of the soil.

There may be two sides to this story as sons of the soil too increase old housing, the one-storey bungalows and homes of old, adding on a mezzanine or floor, at times without permission as their families grow. However, there can be resolutions with alternative housing and some kind of common ground reached.

The Bhoomiputras have time and again protested against being grouped together with slum dwellers. They claim they are the original inhabitants but outsiders build slums on their gaothan periphery, without papers and they are called slum dwellers along with them. We need a clear demarcation or boundary between the villages or gaothans and the slums. This will be a physical marker and a start and reference point for any housing projects in the future.

Meanwhile, the community must not fall into a victim complex and look at how best they can decongest roads and improve access to their homes. Keeping culture alive can also be at the individual level, wherein each household passes on its way of life and culture to the younger generation. A happy balance has to be struck, between community and local representatives as preservation and problem solving go along with progress.