NORTH INDIA: Missionary tells of slum eviction, diocese's efforts to help residents
Episcopal News Service. May 7, 2008 [050708-05]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Members of the Diocese of Durgapur in West Bengal, India, are trying to help the families who live in a slum near the diocesan offices after the people received eviction notices.
Lynn Coulthard, an Episcopal Church missionary to the diocese, reports that about 100 families have lived illegally on land across the street from the diocesan compound for some 10 to 15 years in hopes that one day the government would register the land in their names. That has not happened and now the government wants the land back.
The people migrated from their villages to Durgapur seeking jobs in the industrial sector when it was booming. The bubble burst, Coulthard reports, the economy fell, the factories closed and these people were unemployed, so they became day laborers.
"To go back to their villages was unthinkable as there was no employment there which is why they migrated to the town of Durgapur in the first place," she says.
Twenty-five of the children attend the diocese's child development and learning center, located in the diocesan compound.
Since learning about the eviction, diocesan staffers have been thinking of ways to help the residents. Durgapur Bishop Probal Kanto Dutta suggested building a hostel on top of the existing school which will house the children attending the project, both boys and girls.
"The parents of these children want their children's education to continue as they know an education is one way of protecting them, especially the girls, from the trafficking business which is rampant in India," Coulthard reports. "They have agreed to let their children live at the hostel."
If they go back to their villages, they will be unemployed and their children's basic right to an education will be lost," she adds. "Many of these folks could easily become destitute, especially the older women in the village. And the younger children could become prey to the trafficking predators."
Coulthard says the diocese would like to purchase land to help these villagers resettle in the area. The price of land in Durgapur is very high and the diocese was considering a small tract of land which could accommodate about half of the families. However, the asking price has increased beyond the diocese's purchasing power.
The Diocese of Western North Carolina, from which Coulthard comes, has collected more than $10,000 which will be matched with money from another foundation, she said. That money will be enough to start building the hostel, but the other children and families need some options.
"They need a place to live and educational opportunities for their children so they do not become part of the dire poverty that pervades this country," Coulthard said. "These people are not lazy. They work extremely hard as daily laborers working in construction (both men and women), hauling goods for shops on a bicycle rickshaw, cleaning homes (not always safe), and working on roads. They make very little money, but they keep at it in order to put some kind of food on the table, usually rice and dahl."
Even though it doesn't compare with a tsunami or a major hurricane, Coulthard says the situation is a crisis for the families involved.
More information about Coulthard's ministry is available here.
The Diocese of Durgapur forms part of the Church of North India, which was inaugurated in 1970 and includes the Anglican Church, the United Church of Northern India (Congregationalist and Presbyterian), the Methodist Church (British and Australian Conferences), the Council of Baptist Churches in Northern India, the Church of the Brethren in India, and the Disciples of Christ. The Church of North India is one of the four United Churches of the Anglican Communion.