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In Pictures: Ahmedabad’s segregated Muslims

Gujarat city has seen infrastructure boom but community has been pushed to ghettos with lack of basic amenities.

This is the entrance of Maninagar, a constituency Narendra Modi has represented since 2002. A middle class area in southern Ahmedabad, Maninagar has seen a complete transformation with infrastructural facilities created by the state and civic authorities.
By Mahesh Langa and Divyaraj Gadhavi
Published On 30 Apr 2014

The economic model of western Indian state of Gujarat has been one of the biggest talking points during the campaigning for the parliamentary elections.

The state has recorded impressive growth under Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, who has promised to emulate the state’s “success” at national level.

However, academics and members of civil society are divided on what is being touted as “Gujarat model” of development, which critics say has left out the state’s Muslims.

Under Modi’s watch, Ahmedabad, has seen massive infrastructure growth, and is one of the largest cities in the country, with a population of nearly six million.

Ahmedabad has emerged as one of the most “preferred city to live in” with uninterrupted power supply, sprawling shopping malls, multiplexes, flyovers, bus rapid transit system (BRTS) and high rise apartments, but the city’s infrastructure boom has hardly touched the Muslim community, who are forced to live in slum-like conditions.

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Modi – who has been heading the state government for more than a decade – has also been criticised for his role in the deadly 2002 riots and the subsequent treatment of riot-affected Muslims.

The 600-year-old city has fragmented into newly developed Hindu areas with all the amenities like piped water and cooking gas, high rise apartments for gated communities, private schools, while Muslims have been consigned to ghettos with no street roads, sewerage, or clean water.

Each year about 2,000 children are denied school admission in Juhapura, the largest Muslim ghetto in the city, because of the lack of public or private schools.

Areas such as Juhapura with approximate population of 400,000, Millatnagar and Citizen Nagar are marked with absolute absence of any civic amenities such as drinking water, sewerage, street roads and schools.

Citizen Nagar was set up as a temporary camp to give shelter to people, who fled their homes during the 2002 riots, but it has burgeoned into a big slum and government apathy is palpable. Many here say they have tried to find housing elsewhere in the city, but their Muslim names and lack of funds prevent them from moving out.

Mahesh Langa is the special correspodent for the English Daily, the Hindustan Times.

Photos by Divyaraj Gadhavi.

The Modi government launched Sabarmati Riverfront project in Ahmedabad modelled on Thames riverfront in London. The 10.4km stretch of walkway is open for public use. It was inaugurated in 2012. Slums on both sides of the riverbed were rehabilitated, but activists say more than a thousand families were displaced and found no rehabilitation.
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Ahmedabad(***)s main Ashram Road that begins from the historical Sabarmati Ashram from where Mahatma Gandhi had launched movement for India’s independence from the British colonial rulers. Ashram Road is the main commercial road in the city.
Millatnagar is a slum area located on the bank of Chandola lake. It is a Muslim ghetto with a population of about 20,000 people. Millatnagar is part of Maninagar assembly constituency, which is represented in the Gujarat assembly by Chief Minister Narendra Modi. He has never visited the area.
Millatnagar is a story of broken down shacks built on the narrow and filthy streets. Most of the families here have one room shack and there are no drinking water or sewerage facility. More than 50 percent of the families have to defecate in the open on the other side of the lake due to lack of toilets.
Many people in the area do embroidery work inside their houses to earn a living. People of the area are daily wagers who get works such as embroidery or hand printing on textiles. Children also help their parents in the works.
Approach road to Millatnagar where Maninagar(***)s famed roads give way to dusty streets full of potholes. The area is surrounded by factories which emit poisonous and toxic smoke. It’s difficult to breathe normally particularly in the evening due to smoke.
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Citizen Nagar was built by Muslim NGOs to rehabilitate victims of Naroda Patiya massacre of 2002 in Ahmedabad. Forty houses were built to rehabilitate as many families in the area, which is near the city(***)s largest garbage yard.
A huge mountain of garbage can be seen behind the houses. Constant stink and poisonous gas emanating from the garbage yard makes the entire area un-livable for human beings.
Citizen Nagar resident Reshmaben, 58, is with her granddaughter at their one-room house. She is an eyewitness to Naroda Patiya massacre case in which 98 people of the minority community were killed. She makes a "rakhi" that is used during Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan. She complains of skin diseases because their house is near the city’s largest garbage yard.
Jabbar Allhabaksha Sheikh, another resident of Citizen Nagar, is a daily wager earning about $3 a day that is hardly enough to feed the family of five members.