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Hello,
Today, November 26, marks the 75th anniversary of the Constituent Assembly adopting the Indian Constitution in 1949. Later, the Constitution formally came into effect on January 26, 1950—a red-letter day that still defines and shapes our Republic.
To mark the anniversary, the Supreme Court Observer looks back at the "unprecedented" beginning in March 1948—in a conference of federal and high court judges—when judges from across the country gathered in Delhi to deliberate on the issues concerning the judiciary in the Constitution that was being drafted.
In the last two years, over seven lakh people nationwide have been forcibly evicted from their homes and over one-and-a-half lakh homes demolished, estimates an advocacy group. Most demolitions were conducted on the pretext of 'development, slum clearance, encroachment removal or city beautification'.
One of the latest in the rising instances of demolitions happened in the slum settlement of Jai Bhim Nagar in Mumbai's Powai this June. The demolition drive by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) found over 700 families, some of whom have lived there for thirty years and more, homeless. This, as Article 14 reports, is in violation of due processes, which the Supreme Court has since ruled is a must before demolition.
Even as houses get razed in Mumbai, those promised dwellings in the village of Semra in Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur district have never been built. At each instance, governments tout record allocations and spending for housing, healthcare and water, but a closer look belies these claims.
Janchowk visited Semra village to find a familiar story. Houses committed by the government for the poor have not been built, the village hospital lies in ruins, not one sanitation worker has been appointed, the local pond has become a marsh, and the public toilets are locked.
In 2023, Madhya Pradesh's pollution control board conducted a path-breaking study of surfactants—surface-active agents that form the base of cleaning products—in Bhopal's domestic sewage system. The results were staggering. It found high and unacceptable levels of surfactants in eight major drains and four sewage treatment plants.
Ground Report points out that the mounting challenges from surfactants, which seep into wastewater and groundwater and penetrate cell membranes of living organisms, with the potential to cause severe damage, are still vastly under-reported and unrecognised. The grantee reports from Bhopal and Indore on the need for urgent innovations to address the issue and increase public awareness.
For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
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