September 11, 2007
An experiment yet to take off
By Amit
Bhelari
Politicians and
individuals need to wind back to the earth-shattering events over
the year to see how much mohalla committees have had to work
with society to keep peace in the city. There have been many
aggravations, enough reason for communal sentiment to assume
repulsive forms, rumours of the Quran burning in Delhi, communal
violence in nearby Malegaon, the destruction of the WTC in the
United States by terrorists and most recently, the fallout of the
Gujarat carnage, 2002. On none of these occasions, however, was
peace breached in Mumbai.
The concept of the
Mohalla Committee was initially given a push by F.T.Khorakiwala,
former sheriff of Mumbai, as a project to establish citizens-police
committees in the 72 police station areas after the Bombay post-Babri
Masjid demolition violence in 1992-1993. The genesis lies with then
DCP (Deputy Commissioner of Police) Bhiwandi. Suresh Khopde’s
experiment way back in 1988. One Central Peace Committee with 75
local committees in each of Bhiwandi’s muncipal wards. He took
charge in this powerloom township after the bloodshed of 1984
commonly knows as Bhiwandi Danga. In April 1994 with the help
of erstwhile DGP of Punjab Julio Ribeiro and social worker Sushobha
Barve and extensive support of the then police commissioner of
Mumbai, Satish Sahney, 24 active mohalla committees were set
up in communally sensitive areas of Mumbai. Members were responsible
citizens of an area without any political affiliation or communal or
controversial background.
The mohalla
committees in Mumbai began, providing a site for an interface of
civil society with state actors especially from law enforcement.
Local initiative made all the difference. Concerted efforts were
initiated by citizens and various organizations to provide a space
for exchanges. To heal the wounds of those displaced and devastated
by brute violence. The government, especially its police, too
realized that it had suffered loss of credibility vis-à-vis people,
and decided to channelise its resources and efforts through the
non-government organisations. The mohalla committee played a
significant role in building bridges between Hindus and Muslims. The
most important and essential aspect of the work was to create an
ambience and open a channel of communication between the police and
citizen and particularly the minority Muslims community to
re-establish trust and confidence in the system.
To quote Satish Sahney,
“The two communities were never so divided as they were in
1993.Police credibility was at its lowest, particularly among the
Muslims. They were not willing to even take a complaint to the
police, which is a very dangerous situation.” .There was urgent need
to bring a change in the attitude of the police,
City of Mumbai faced
one of the worst outbreaks of violence towards the end of 1992 and
the beginning of 1993. The animosity between Hindus and Muslims and
the inability of the state to respond effectively were
demonstrated on a scale never before witnessed in the city.
Thousands of men were butchered and some women even victim of sexual
violence; there was the targeting of minorities on a large scale.
This has been established in the Justice B.N. ShriKrishna Commission
Report. The Inquiry was set up to inquire into the riots at Mumbai
during December 1992-January 1993. Minorities were affected most in
the riots. The horrendous devastation tore apart the both
communities, concerned citizens and some sections of the police came
forward to extinguish the fires caused by hatred, and one of the
outcomes of these efforts was the establishment of mohalla
committees.
A mohalla committee
was set up at each of the Police stations with a view to maintain
peace and communal harmony amongst the citizens belonging to
different castes, creed and religions. Maria Ishwaran the
Coordinator of Women’s Grievances Redressal Cell and facilitator in
Mohalla Committee at Andheri, MIDC states that noble ideals apart,
today, the agenda has changed; there is hardly any co-operation from
the police. The dream of a vibrant network of citizen-police
interfaces within Mumbai has been shattered and is today on the
brink of collapse. The reason, she says, possibly because there is
not enough and consistent grass root level work. Out of 83 police
stations only 33 today have the mohalla committee that is not
even 50% of the total. The figures speak. Committee workers have
failed to expand this concept out of their own respective areas.
So, sixteen years down
the road, where do these attempts at community policing and peace
building, stand? Do they exist in letter and spirit? To quote Julio
Ribeiro, former supercop and one of the key movers behind this
concept, “There is not much support from the police and a
stereotypical perception has forced cops not to entertain any
complaint particularly from the Muslims. At times the police are
biased in their approach, at other times incoherent during
interactions with the minority community. When it comes to handling
of cases, or interrogations, a downright bias shows up. There is a
also a lack of transparency towards this section of our people.
There has been an enormous loss of credibility for our city police”.
When did the
deterioration of this attempt at peace-building start? Says Ribeiro,
regretfully the erosion began under the tenure of R.D. Tyagi, a
former Joint Commissioner of Police Mumbai who later became
Commissioner in 1995. Tyagi actively worked to destroy the working of
the mohalla committees; he launched his own organisations
having the same name but this attempt did not succeed. Tyagi is also
one of those 31 policemen indicted by Justice BN Srikrishna in his
report; he is accused of ordering the killing of 9 bakery workers at
the Suleiman Usman Bakery in the Report. The report also recommends
that he should be prosecuted, after retirement as police
commissioner, he joined hands with the Shiv Sena.
Citizens like Waqar
Khan and Ramchandra Korde also known as Bhau Korde are working on
the ground level in Dharavi; the Dharavi mohalla committee is
the best example of amity. They have been associated with the
mohalla committee trust since it is established. Khan and Korde
are one of the oldest residents in Dharavi, and therefore, when
Bombay burned in 92-93 and the city was scarred beyond recognition,
they both decided to create an environment of communal harmony. Khan
used local children to pose for a picture of religious clerics--one
a Muslim, a Hindu, a Sikh and a Christian, the picture bearing the
slogan “Hum Sab Ek Hai” which is ubiquitous at most of the police
stations in Mumbai. This poster was put up on Juhu Chowpatty as a
hoarding for many years to convey the message of secularism and
brotherhood.
Bhau Korde, says, ‘‘The
method we use to build confidence or bhaichara depends on the
area and the mood that day. Some days we have had to do some
tough-talking, on other days we sit around with as many people as
possible and just chat. The idea is: let the leaders create a bad
situation, we won’t react to it’’.
Mohalla Committee
members also intervene in small local disputes or even to
intermediate in domestic quarrels and organize meetings if
necessary. Yasmin Shaikh commonly know as “Yashmin Appa” is one of
the coordinators of the mohalla committee and is also looking
after the Mahila Takrar Nivaran Kendra at Nagpada police
station. This centre has established a network among Muslim women
and youth in the area. By profession she is an advocate but involved
herself with the local mohalla committee since 1994. Her
colleagues and she make every possible effort to maintain peace. She
is always surrounded by people from the local community, visiting
her office with their grievances and she tries to ensure that these
are solved at the community level without taking recourse to lengthy
legal procedures. Active and dynamic, she also opines that an
absence of purpose on the part of the police combined with an
ignorance of the culture and traditions of the Muslim minority, have
widened the gap between the police and the minorities.
Cricket is a national
passion and the mohalla committee trust has used cricket
competitions as one of the core activities of the organization,
several times a year. How can cricket matches and painting
competitions diffuse tensions and help resolve conflict? A resident
of Behrampada, one of the worst affected areas of 1992-1993, says
“If youngsters from both communities play together, cricket can be a
uniting factor in place of conflict between the two communities”.
The idea was born after a match between India and Pakistan gave rise
to some tension, years back. Other trivial, civic issues often
degenerate into violence when Communities are already divided and
suspicious of each other.
Recalls a resident of
Imamwada in central Mumbai, this area was brought to the brink of a
riot, when an old man in a balcony carelessly blew his nose at some
youngsters standing below. In another case, the communal divide in
Madanpura’s Afzal chawl came to the fore when water dripped from
linen left to dry on a second-floor clothesline, onto some persons
below. Local living conditions play a role in exacerbating a
conflict The Versova mohalla committee, has established ‘Agaz’,
a street theatre group to perform street plays on the theme of
communal harmony. “It does spread message of amity in our society”,
said by of the resident of Versova.
It is a moment of
profound test for all our institutions. The shame of the mass victim
survivors of the Gujarat carnage of 2002 a living reality is matched
by the brutality of farmers being shot dead in Nandigram by the
police. In Maharashtra, the brutal humiliation and massacre of a
Dalit family at Khairlanji is overshadowed by the cold callousness
of the police against Dalit protestors—in Nagpur, the police pulled
out a 55 year old women and other protestors from their homes and
thrashed them while in Amravati a protesting rickshaw driver was
shot point blank in the head by the police.
Why have the mohalla
committees not addressed these issues in a bid to expand their
expanse and depth? In Dharavi itself, the issue of religious
processions and their passages through local communities remains
unresolved. The issue included the passage of the Ganapathi
procession in front of the main Mosque of the area. The pandals
of Ganesha are so big that it becomes difficult for others to cross
the road, apparently it arises tension between the communities.
Several years after its formation, despite the intervention of the
mohalla Committee, a solution has not been found.
According to stalwarts,
while initially, people show enthusiasm for the work of the
mohalla committee, this interest is difficult to sustain. The
involvement of the members from the middle class is peripheral to
say the least. Very often people join these committees, because of
their desire to increase their sphere of influence and power or in
furtherance of a personal agenda. At times the use of political
influence tries to shape and influence the spirit and functioning of
the mohalla committees, losing them their independence. If
anti-social elements seek and get membership, it becomes difficult
to find even ten committed workers in the locality to join, says
Mr.Virochan Raote a coordinator of the mohalla committee
trust.
Recently the Supreme
Court headed by Chief Justice K.G.Balakrishnan asked the petitioners
seeking the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report on
the 1992-93 Mumbai riots to file an affidavit detailing the state
government’s alleged lapses in taking action against those involved.
Suddenly the Shiv Sainiks went berserk and criticized the campaign
Justice for All, for the reopening of the Srikrishna report.
There exists institutionalised prejudice against the Muslim minority
within government and even the police establishment. This is evident
in the manner in which they treated the two cases of unjustified
firing by policemen at Suleman Bakery and Hari Masjid against
innocents have progressed. With obvious attempts by fanatical
elements set to communalise a constitutional demand for justice, the
possibility of ground level conflict cannot be ruled out. Are
Mumbai’s mohalla committees taking any measures to stabilize the
situation?
The idea was born from
an experiment made by Pune Railways Commissioner of Police and
former DCP of Bhiwandi, Suresh Khopde in 1984. To quote from his
book, Bhiwandi Danga, “We need to understand the
socio-economic conditions of our society and has to work with the
masses”. He examines that factor in a communal riot that makes
enemies out of neighbours, even friends. He has accepted that the
functioning of our police system is also somewhere responsible in
creating alienation among Muslims.
A truly unfortunate
reason for the failure of this experiment in Mumbai, after the fires
of 1992-1993 is the fact that persons in high positions including
police commissioners, were not willing to extend their support to
the mohalla committee. An experiment o this unique kind,
needs hands down involvement among the committee members, an ability
to dialogue and debate serious issues. Local issues will war with
the national often one impinging on the other. The tact and
commitment will lie in unraveling the layers and dealing with the
questions and resentments below.
The mohalla
committee experiment is a scientifically proven scheme of
intervention, accepted by social scientists but it also requires
changes and modifications in different areas and situations so that
the message of communal harmony can reach to the maximum number. The
path ahead for the mohalla committees is not easy. There are
some obstacles within the system that denies self-correction and
introspection especially if it involves questioning the mindset of
the people. To ensure revival of this experiment and success, a
dogged commitment by hands down team is necessary. Those that will
today work to activate and revive this much needed experiment will
have to draw from our neighbourhoods their plurality and diversity
and learn, painfully, how to make this our greatest investment and
strength.