Nariman Point, a business and banking hub in South Mumbai, is one of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods. On the evening of November 9, the footpaths were dimly lit by yellow streetlights. Office workers strode briskly over these pavements, strewn with freshly fallen lavender-blue flowers of the Bengal clock vine, making their way toward Churchgate station to travel back to homes in the suburbs.
To others, however, the pavements themselves are home. Among them are 35-year-old Nagesh Chauhan and his extended family, who live opposite the towering Life Insurance Corporation headquarters, just a few steps away from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s state office, and around half a kilometre from the Maharashtra government headquarters.
The family stores its sparse possessions in bundles around them. They have a stove on which they cook occasionally, but they usually eat from a nearby canteen, next to a Janata Dal party office. They use a public toilet to relieve and wash themselves. “Our grandmother used to say that we shifted here during the drought of 1972,” said Chauhan. “They worked as construction labourers for these buildings surrounding us.”
The Chauhans are Mahadev Pardhis, a sub-group of the Pardhi community, which is a Vimukta Jati or a Denotified Tribe, often abbreviated to DNT….
