This wretched life

An up close view of Applewatte is a wake-up call about the plight of slum dwellers in Colombo:

by Latheef Farook

Sidelined and forgotten, the plight of the illiterate, poverty stricken Muslim slum dwellers in Colombo remains a shameful indictment, not only on successive governments but also on the so called Muslim politicians, blighting the 'Miracle of Asia' aspirations

The slum dwellers are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment, which sees even the children being deprived of most of life's essentials, specifically education. Many school-aged children have been forced to take up petty, ill-paying jobs to support their families, putting an end to their education that could have pulled them out of the vicious cycle.

The state of the existing education facilities is such that Hameed Al Husseiniya, the only national school, is short of both teachers and facilities. This has also added to the very high dropout rates, causing serious social and economic problems

Unemployment remains a very crucial problem and people are forced to seek and accept any odd jobs for survival.

According to reports, around 63 percent of Muslims in the Colombo District live in slums. For example, in one area in Peer Sahib Street called Watta No 61, here are eleven houses accommodating 20 families. In yet another case four families were found to be living in a house built on a single perch of land.

No toilets

Muslims occupy around nine percent of the land area in Colombo Central and more than half of them live in rented houses. In one place, there was only one toilet for eleven houses, indicating just how lacking these families were even in basic health facilities.

Reports also reveal that in many house people sleep in shifts due to lack of facilities.

Added to this unending misery is the fact that there has been no political representation for Colombo Muslims during the past five years, thus depriving them of the budget allocations usually given to parliamentarians?

With governments and politicians ignoring these unfortunate slum dwellers, civil society in the Muslim community has taken on the onus of helping them. One such effort was in Applewatte, a shanty of mixed population with the majority being Muslims, located in the heart of Colombo.

A group of well wishers organised a shramadana program last week to help improve their living conditions. Notable among those who took the initiatives were well known entrepreneur Fouzul Hameed of Hameedias, Reza Alaudeen of Serendib Educational Foundation and well known activist Hilru Siddeeque. Several others participated and donated cash to help ensure the success of the project.

Filthy conditions

The single most important achievement of the project is the awareness created on having a clean neighbourhood from Masjid Bilal to the Applewatte inhabitants.

Explaining the project, activist Hilru Siddeeque says "Applewatte is one of the slums of Colombo in the Maligawatta Police Division. It comprises approximately 728 Muslim, 80 Hindu, 20 Buddhist and 20 Christian families. A team from the Serendib School Development Foundation (SSDF) visited this community on March 17, 2015 and was shocked to see the filthy and unhealthy conditions the people were living in," adding that they found the house to be in extremely dilapidated conditions with leaking roofs, broken toilets and some shacks even without proper ventilation, looking worse than cattle sheds. "In some houses dirty water was oozing out of the floor and there were even drains flowing through the house."

The SSDF team organized a shramadana to help the slum dwellers and many liberally contributed, he claims, elaborating that several organizations and individuals took part the endeavour.

Applewatte is the archetypal lost community, where no one owns deeds for the land they live in. The houses are built in a haphazard manner according to ability and capacity of each family, with no thought given to planning, structural security or basic amenities. But in this mixed community the anomalies are tolerated.

Out of order

According to Siddeeque, there are five public toilets. But one is not functional, and the other four only barely. All are in need of urgent repair and renovation. There are also two public bathing places, but taking a bath is a daily battle.

The people are a necessary component of the community in the near vicinity. They supply all kinds of labour for all the odd jobs. But some also run small businesses, selling home-made items from their homes and from the pavements. The Colombo businessmen depend on these slum dwellers.

Many of those living in the slum come from broken home. To what extent is reflected in the statistics, which shows that Applewatte is home to some 40 orphans, 50 street children, 30 invalid and 35 paralyzed.

Explains Siddeeque, "Poverty leads to crime. This is what happens here. Loan and interest burdens, unemployment, gambling, betting, drug trafficking and prostitution remains common. About 15% of the women and 10% of the men have gone abroad for odd jobs and their children are lost in life."

He says about 100 houses have to have their roofs repaired, and about 60 to 80 households need kitchen utensils, while children need clothes and books. "An estimated 25% of the children are malnourished because they cannot afford three quality meals a day. Approximately 15% of the people are beggars. About 35% are single parent family," he elaborates.