Revision as of 15:09, 27 October 2016

Kamathipura

2016: real estate drives flesh trade out

The Times of India, May 27 2016

Lure of real estate driving lust out of Mumbai's oldest red light area

Vijay Singh

A frail, old woman limps out of the 14th lane of Kamathipura to the pavement where the huge City Centre mall stands and stretches out her palm hoping for some alms. She was once a sex worker in the city's oldest red light area, and has now fallen on hard times with age.

Business is not very good nowadays. Everything is changing in Kamathipura; most of the `hi-fi' sex workers have moved out to the suburbs, or do business on Twitter and WhatsApp. Service class (white-collared) people are moving.

Lust has suffered a body blow at Kamathipura as real estate and new businesses become the top driving forces, slowly chiselling out a new face for this clichéd `pleasure zone' close to both Mumbai Central and Grant Road stations.

“As more and more middle class and upper middle class people have started moving to Kamathipura, strong intolerance has started showing towards the poor, especially the sex workers, said Brijesh Arya of Pehchan, an NGO working for the rights of homeless workers at Kamathipura for close to a decade.

Kamathipura is now home to many embroidery workers, clothes dyers, and even lawyers, chartered accountants, and regular office crowd, he added.

In the 13th lane, S K Jain, a chartered accountant by profession, said he started living there with his family two years ago. “Geographically , this is a good place, located close to Mumbai Central station.The stigma attached to the name Kamathipura is also going as a decent crowd has come here. Change is inevitable,“ said Jain.

The social activists and cityscape enthusiasts of Pehchan and RaahGeer group have now decided to organise a Kamathipura Night Walk on May 27 and 28 in a bid to capture the urban history and re call some tales associated with the area before it transforms into another concrete jungle.

“At Kamathipura, the basic fabric of people and local trades is fast changing. This is the time to see Kamathipura by night before it all chang es, said architect Deepa Nandi of RaahGeer.

Milind Deora, former South Mumbai MP, said people have approached him to change the area's name as it is linked to the sex trade.“Historically, it was so called because migrant workers from south India called `kamathis' had settled here.Now, residents want a different name altogether. Real estate is making inroads into all such old areas, including Kamathipura,“ said Deora.He backed cluster redevelopment of the entire neighbour hood for the sake of better modern systems.

About the fate of the poor, homeless and the sex workers, BJP's Shaina NC said, “There are various NGOs working in these areas to rehabilitate those pushed into sex trade. Human trafficking is illegal, so their lives must also be transformed for the better. “The first AIDS-related case was detected in Mumbai in 1986. By 1999, the disease had spread rapidly in Kamathipura, leading to aggressive mass awareness by activists and celebs. Now, over 80% of sex workers are out of these areas, mainly due to economic hurdles. The red light area is on its last legs,“ said Dr Ishwar Gilada, veteran campaigner against HIVAIDS.

King's Circle

Nanalal D Mehta Garden

The Times of India, Aug 04 2016

How Mumbai gave itself a `walker's paradise'

 A `walker's paradise' is what locals fondly call Mumbai's first garden under a flyover at King's Circle. Inaugurated in June, the Nanalal D Mehta Garden under the Tulpule flyover was built by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at a cost of Rs 5 crore. It includes a jogging track and several ornamental plants.

This was a unique concept driven by the initiative of the locals, who got BMC to design this 700-metre green space. This was at a time when most spaces under flyovers were either encroached upon by vagrants or used to park vehicles.

King's Circle resident Nikhil Desai said, “It was Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority that had built the Tulpule flyover along with two other flyovers between King's Circle and Dadar. Around four years ago, when the flyovers were opened to the public, we saw that below each of the three flyovers there was either unauthorised parking, illegal shops operating or vagrants using the patch. We all were against it.“

He added, “Soon, we approached the then municipal commissioner, Sitaram Kunte.After studying our request, he asked the garden department if a garden there was possible. Tenders were floated, and today it's purely a walker's paradise with numerous people with their children coming here every evening.“

The garden's jogging track has been designed to depict the flow of the Narmada; the sitting space imitates ghats on that river.

Deputy municipal commissioner S S Shinde, who is in charge of gardens in Mumbai, said the feedback from the local residents has been very good. “But at present, there are no plans of designing any more green spaces under flyovers. In order to create such spaces we need to have a larger area. In case of Mehta garden it was possible as the space was big enough,“ said Shinde.