Pandhrabodi barricades hide difficult lives of daily wagers

Nagpur: The residents of Pandhrabodi slums, who could be earlier seen strolling besides the roads stretching from the rear side of university campus to Ambazari lake, now peep helplessly from behind a tin barricade erected right at their door steps.
A 500m tin barricade keeps the dwellers away from the rest of the city. It is the latest pocket to have become a containment zone. A man residing in Pandhrabodi died a week ago after testing Covid-19 positive.
Entire Pandhrabodi has a population of not less than 50,000, say the locals. Mostly daily wagers, already facing the heat of lockdown, many now fear worse times are ahead due to the containment.
The area stretches all along the road leading to Ambazari lake from the Nagpur University campus on Amravati Road, right up to the rear of Ram Nagar Hill Top.
“The authorities said they will be providing rations at our doorsteps. I have run out of cooking gas, where are they now,” says an angry Surendra Sone, a car driver. “Last two months have been very bad. I could manage as my employer gave small amounts in between to meet the expenses. But I had to go down to his place to get the money,” he said.
“It is a 30-minute walk to reach the other side, which is open,” says Mohan Warkar, a daily wager in his late fifties, now living hand to mouth.
“We cannot step out of our homes even to buy essentials. In the evening, policemen guard the area and we dare not jump over the barricade,” said a resident.
“I had been to the ration shop inside the slum but it’s closed. There is no other outlet from where we can buy things,” shouts Anjum Shaikh, who also says that there is hardly any money left with her either. Her husband — a painter — is unemployed since the lockdown.
As many as half of the residents of the slums are tenants, said locals. A single rooms cost Rs2,000 a month, with the rent going up to Rs5,000 for a slightly bigger accommodation, they said.
“The landlords have been kind enough as they are not insisting on payment. Though even their situation is no better than ours,” said Vaishali Sonere.
“They have a dole of Rs2,000 for the farmers and it’s Rs500 for us. How many days can that amount last?” said a woman asking about the Rs500 dole credited in women’s Jan Dhan accounts.