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For children from a few night shelters in the city, it was a day of fun and games on Monday at a ‘festival’ organised by the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB).
Najma (15) took back a prize from a drawing competition she won earlier in the day. “This was a fun day. There were games,” she said of the festival that was organised right outside the shelter complex at Sarai Kale Khan where she has been living with her family for 12 years. “We used to live on a footpath before we came here. Now there are around 150 people living here with us,” said Najma, whose mother works as a safai karamchari at the shelter.
The ‘slum festival’ kicked off a week-long series of activities that will be conducted at DUSIB shelters, including medical camps and camps to issue Aadhaar and voter ID cards.
According to K Mahesh, CEO, DUSIB, the festival was meant to encourage and motivate those who live in night shelters and recognise the talent among them.
In the activities on Monday, children from the shelter at Sarai Kale Khan as well as those from other shelters and colonies in the city performed and participated.
Meher (17) was among around 15 teenagers from the Sarai Kale Khan shelter who danced at the event. She dropped out of school after class 9 and now helps with an awareness programme against drugs.
“Like everybody else here, we have dreams to build our own house. There isn’t enough money. But the facilities here are good. We get food and clothes,” said Meher, whose father drives an e-rickshaw.
The group of girls who danced had been looking forward to their event and all the performances of the evening, said Anamika (14), whose family hailing from Allahabad has been living at the shelter for six years.
Some of the children at the event were given certificates and trophies in recognition of their work or talents. Shabana (15), who lives in a night shelter near Jama Masjid, was among five girls who received certificates for ‘excellence in public service’. The group conducts “food walks” in the Chandni Chowk and Jama Masjid area in an initiative by Purani Dilli Waalon Ki Baatein.
Part of the group was Sabeena (15), whose mother works as a cleaner at the shelter. “We conduct these walks together, around once a month. It was nice to come here and get a certificate for it,” she said. “I would like to complete school and college, and then buy a house so we don’t have to stay in the shelter anymore,” Sabeena said.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who was the chief guest at the event, was miffed at posters and brief sloganeering alongside the stage while he was set to address the gathering. The posters were signed ‘Covid vendors’ and said that payments are due to them for work carried out for the Revenue Department.
“For the first time, there is a government that is talking about people living in jhuggis and is celebrating a slum festival. Are you not ashamed to come here and create chaos? I don’t know what party workers you are… lekin bahut ghatiya soch ki party ke karyakarta ho aap log,” Sisodia said.
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