In Bawana, it is a ‘black’ Diwali

Shamsudin lost his wife, Madina, soul bread earner of the family in a fire tragedy in Bawana last year in January. Madina, like 16 others who died in the tragedy, was working at an illegal fire-cracker manufacturing unit. 

Shamsudin lives with his three children. Two sons and a daughter. One of the sons is mentally unstable and the other one is paralyzed from his right side. His daughter is mentally unstable too. The four were sitting in different spots and monitoring the labourers who are now building their new house. 

“My wife was the head of the family. It was she who was running the household. We got Rs five lakh from the government and my well wishers in the society said we should first have a roof on our head and hence I decided to construct my house,” said Shamsudin.

While one of his sons is busy playing with the other children, Shamsudin says “Chath toh bana rahe hain, khayenge kaha se? (We are building the roof but what will we eat?)” He falls sick often and hence is unable to work.

"We feel bad and we all hate to say this but we give them our leftover food. The family would look forward to Diwali as their mother would always return home with some goodies," a woman in the neighbourhood says. 

As you walk out through the lanes of Metro Vihar, where a majority of labourers reside, a young girl, Savita, in a pink suit can be seen setting up a toy shop on a charpai (a traditional woven bed). Her 11-year old sister Geeta was also working at the illegal cracker factory. When asked if she would want to celebrate Diwali, she stares nods her head in a 'no'. Recalling the time, she says, “I remember an aunty in the area said there is a cracker factory and they are paying almost double the money. Geeta went once and then went again. She thought she would help the family. My father is a painter and is generally away. He did not come home even on Karwa Chauth. This is why Geeta had also started working so that she could earn more money for the family.”

It is a similar story for most of the families as they live in a hand-to-mouth situation but what makes them unique is the way they all live together and understand each other’s needs.

Sintu, 18, in a torn jeans and a shirt, with no slippers to cover his feet, talks about his family. His father is mentally unstable and his mother, Baby Devi, died in the cracker factory fire last year. For most of the time, the family shuffled between their village and Delhi. “My father is mentally unstable. We had gone to our village for my mother's cremation. When we were coming back. my father jumped out of the moving train. It is very difficult to manage with him," Sintu says.

Sintu has three other siblings - a younger brother Akshay (14) and two sisters Suruchi (11) and Khusboo (21). The compensation they received from the government is almost over. Sintu and Khusboo have been unable to get a job as they cannot leave their two younger siblings alone at home.

Seventeen people, including 10 women, had died on January 20 while they were working inside an illegal cracker factory in Bawana. This year, the families of the victims do not want to celebrate Diwali. They do not wish to work at a cracker factory either.

“As a legal representative of this case, it is very unfortunate that even after a declaration of compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each of the victims' families they have to fight with the government for the cheques. The court hearing of this case is going very slow. After the high court’s intervention, the accused Aashish Jain was arrested by the Crime Branch. Bail of Jain is a conditional bail wherein he has promised to the court that he will pay Rs 1 lakh to victims' families before Diwali but only Rs 10 lakh have been deposited so far,” says Sanjeev Ojha Advocate.