PIL seeks basic amenities for women, children living on debris of Kathputli colony; Delhi High Court seeks response of authorities

NEW DELHI: A PIL has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking basic amenities and warm clothes for pregnant and lactating women, babies and children living on the debris of the demolished Kathputli colony here, claiming that a newborn died there due to lack of post natal care.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar asked the lawyer of the petitioner as to where the basic amenities, including sanitation facilities, would come from if people set up residence on a footpath or anywhere else.

Advocate Pallavi Sharma, appearing for the petitioner, contended that the people on whose behalf the PIL has been moved were held ineligible for relocation to another place by the DDA and the high court had prohibited the authorities from removing them from the west Delhi colonsy.

The bench said it had allowed only those people to remain at the colony who had to file an appeal against the Delhi Development Authority's (DDA) decision holding them ineligible for relocation and rehabilitation.

It, however, issued notice to the Delhi government and its departments of health as well as women and child development and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), seeking their replies by February 20 to the issues raised in the petition.

Sharma said the PIL on behalf of pregnant and lactating women, the newborn babies and kids upto the age of six years, only seeks temporary relief for them, especially during the winter.

The public interest litigation (PIL) by a 46-year-old woman, who resides in the colony, has sought accessibility and availability of health case, nutritious food, sanitation facility, blankets and warm clothing for the pregnant and lactating women, newborns and kids upto the age of six years who are living in the demolished colony.

The petition has claimed that the living conditions in the colony are in a deplorable state and women and children have been deprived of access to clean and hygienic sanitary facilities forcing them to defecate in the open at a nearby railway track.

It claimed that a newborn baby died due to lack of post natal care and warm clothing and sought a mobile medical van to provide maternal health care as well as access to sanitary facilities, warm clothing and blankets.

The plea has also contended that as the Anganwadi Centre at the colony was also demolished, so no nutritional food, supplements were being provided to the women and young kids.

It has sought mobile food vans for distributing food to the families there as they are presently dependent on the food provided twice a day by a nearby Gurudwara.