Urgent Action Appeal: Pavement Community Faces Demolitions, India 45 houses, affecting approximately 225 persons, of the Baradevi Pavement Community in Sewri, Mumbai were forcefully demolished on the afternoon of 31 May 2010. The evictions of the pavement dwellers were carried forth by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) under the authority fo the Maharashtra State Government. All evicted residents are not considered eligible for the Mahatma Gandhi Pathakranti Yojana( MGPKY), a scheme that aims to clear slums from pavements along arterial roads with a plan to rehabilitate approximately dwellers from 45 roads across Mumbai. The residents of Baradevi are informal workers engaged in washing cars, domestic work, construction work, driving vehicles, etc. They have been living in the said location for the past three decades and currently there is no known plan for road expansion or other development-based projects. A large number of the community consists of single women and widows who have now been rendered doubly vulnerable due to the forced evictions. As the MGPKY recognizes the presence of the person’s name consistently in the electoral lists of 1995 to 2009 as the only eligibility criteria for rehabilitation, about 72 % of the Baradevi Pavement Community has been rendered ineligible and are currently homeless due to the forced evictions. No notice was served to the pavement dwellers prior to the demolitions and they have been threatened by the Ward Officer, Mr. H. Kale, that if they dare construct their homes again on that pavement, the BMC would confiscate all their belongings.

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