NEW DELHI: Shabana lost two relatives in the northeast Delhi riots last year. Her house was burnt down. The family of eight had shared just one room, but Shabana says that was adequate.
“At least we could call the room ours,” she said on Friday. She was relieved finally to get the house back after renovation, having lived over a year on rent. Like her, 70 other families that had also lost their homes in the riots have got back fully rebuilt or renovated houses.
Maulana Mahmood Madani of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) has handed over the 76 new and restored home to the riot victims, advising the families to strive for moral uprightness and social values and to become better citizens and serve humanity.
After their house was set afire, Shabana was so scared that she did not return to the house for two whole months. “Finally, when I did, I was shocked to see the condition of my house. There was not a single thing left,” she recalled. “We had no money and we ran from pillar to post to get funds to restore the house. Help finally came JUH, and just two weeks we were given back the house in which we had lived for 18 years, entirely renovated and liveable.”
Reshma, 40, got a fully rebuilt house in Shiv Vihar. Saying she couldn’t be more grateful, she stepped into her house for the first time since seeing it last when it was razed to the ground. “Most houses were first vandalised and then set ablaze,” she said. “In fact, as soon as I stepped out of the house with my newborn baby, I heard one of two gas cylinders in the house explode. The roof also collapsed.”
Just as happy and grateful was Bano, whose husband had to undergo surgery after being injured in the communal violence. “I locked myself in the room with my 12-year-old daughter,” remembered Bano. “We heard someone come up the stairs, so we hid under the bed. Someone barged in and vandalised the room but did not discover us. When that person left, we somehow managed to run out from the house which was now on fire. Some policemen on the main road took us to a safe location.”
Bano has turned her house into a tuition centre that offers classes to children free of cost. “It's been around two weeks since I started the classes and almost 40 kids have enrolled,” she said. “My house was in a dilapidated condition and since I had exhausted my money, I thought why not change my house into a tuition centre for students of classes XI and above. I turned the ground floor into a tuition centre and live on the first floor.”
Afsareen, however, hasn’t been lucky. She lives on rent in a house that was damaged during the riots. “Three of my daughters are dead, while one is bedridden. I have to take care of my daughters’ 13 children,” the beleaguered woman said. “My husband and I are ragpickers and barely make any money to have a decent life. We are paying Rs 2,500 every month as rent, even though the house we live in was considerably damaged in the riots.” Between sobs, she added, “There's nobody who is coming to help us. I don't know what to do.”