Nizamuddin: Makeover for the mystic's abode

A concerted effort is on to restore the 700-year-old Nizamuddin Basti in New Delhi and ensure that conservation goes hand in hand with development

Walking down the lanes of Nizamuddin Basti is like stepping into another world — medieval relics coexist with urban structures; a lyrical blend of chaste Urdu and Hindi, often peppered with some English, plays sweetly on the ears; a gaggle of smartly-dressed schoolchildren can be seen helping a mosaic artist adorn the walls of a park; burqa-clad women seem to be deep in conversation as they make their way into the neighbourhood’s only women’s gymnasium; members of a self-help group are cleaning one of the the two community toilets; and in another street, a group of 10 women can be heard educating the residents on the importance of waste segregation. No one trip to the basti is the same; every visit affords a new experience, a new insight into the life of this 700-year-old settlement. 

Door-to-door waste management

There was a time, nearly 10 years ago, when the scene in the basti was dramatically different. Unemployment and illiteracy were rampant [less than 40 per cent completed secondary schooling]. The clinic run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, or MCD, was a shambles. Incidents of women dying during childbirth were commonplace. The streets were lined with filth. Women were afraid of stepping out of their homes. Drug peddlers and mosquitoes reigned over public parks. Visitors would gingerly make their way through the basti to pay their respects at the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and then quietly slink away. “Ghetto” was a word that one heard way too often to describe the place.

That’s when the Aga Khan Development Network, or AKDN, stepped in and started the Nizamuddin Urban Renewal Initiative —a partnership with the Archaeological Survey of India, MCD and Central Public Works Department.

Change is never easy, and this project too faced its share of challenges. Mindsets, handed down over centuries, were difficult to alter. But once people saw the improved infrastructure and the restoration of nearby monuments such as Humayun’s Tomb and the adjoining Sunder Nursery, they began to take interest in the project. “Conservation should not be done for conservation’s sake. It should generate livelihoods and make meaningful improvements in the way people live,” says project director Ratish Nanda. He wants to bring back memories of the time when the basti was the cradle of Hindustani culture. “Amir Khusro (the Sufi poet, musician and scholar who was  the most loved disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya) was here. So were Rahim and [Mirza] Ghalib. This is not a ghetto or a place for drugs. We want to showcase the rich culture of the place,” he says.

The one incident which helped bring about a change in people’s hearts was the restoration of the Nizamuddin baoli, Delhi’s only surviving stepwell, built in 1321-22. “My father would often rue the lack of cleanliness of this 800-year-old baoli,” says Farid Ahmed Nizami, who belongs to the 21st generation of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and is the naib sajjadanashin (hereditary caretaker) of the dargah. “This step well was dug by Hazrat Nizamuddin himself. However, due to encroachments along the baoli, muck and sewage had polluted the waters. AKDN helped relocate the families that had set up home here and restored the baoli to its glory.” The organisation also helped beautify the public parks in the area, one being solely for women and children. “Before this, women had no space for themselves. An elderly woman came up to me and said, ‘aapne humein poora kar diya (you have completed us)’,” recalls Nanda.

Community health workers

The biggest achievement of the project, claim Nanda and MCD councillor Farhad Suri [who is closely involved with the project], is that the locals have taken ownership of it. The children and women, especially, are the drivers of this change. As I enter the basti, I am greeted by 60-year-old Saeeda who is part of the neighbourhood watch group. She and her team go door to door, educating people not to throw garbage on the streets. This wasn’t easy to achieve. Saeeda had doors slammed on her face. People thought that her team wanted to demolish their houses. But, who doesn’t like clean streets, and slowly people came around. “We link them to a particular waste collector and also maintain an audit sheet about which street has been broomed. We then submit it to MCD so that it knows whether its safai karamcharis are doing proper work on not.”

As I walk around the basti, the eye takes in people who seem ordinary at first, but each one of them has an extraordinary story of leadership and change to tell. For instance, Anwar Hussain of the Rehmet Nigrani Samooh manages the community toilets in the area. Having studied till Class V, he used to do odd jobs to keep his family going. However, after having worked with AKDN, he recognises the importance of education and is investing in the schooling of his two children. Then there is Aamir Ahmed, who too abandoned his education because of a family problem. But with inspiring stories all around him, he also decided to make a change and started the Sair-e-Nizamuddin heritage walks in 2009. “I didn’t know a word of English in 2007, but I joined an English speaking course that AKDN organises with the British Council and American Embassy. Now I can handle a group of 60 people alone with ease,” says Ahmed, who is educating youngsters in the basti about the history of the hundreds of monuments located here. “The primary MCD school was upgraded and teachers trained. As a result, the enrolment has gone up from 191 to 700,” says Suri.

Change is also visible in the health services available in the area. Though the MCD clinic was in existence for long, there were no doctors, no laboratories and hence, very little attendance. AKDN trained 50 women — 40 of them part-time — to act as sehat aapas. There is one sehat aapa for each of the eight clusters in the basti [there are roughly 200 households in each cluster].

MCD school classroom

Henna and Mehrunissa are two such sehat aapas. “Earlier, women used to give birth at home. There were no antenatal check-ups and no immunisations after birth. Now, a gynaecologist comes for two days a week and we organise checkups and tests,” says Henna. Being a sehat aapa has brought a change in their lives as well. Most of these 50 women are housewives who would earlier hesitate to step out of their homes. Spending eight hours out of the home was unthinkable and they would often get scolded by their husbands. But, with the appreciation and additional income coming in, their families have relented. “Look at them today. They will confidently discuss condoms with you, without batting an eyelid,” says Jyotsna Lal, who is part of the project’s core group. She hopes that the project will help tackle the critical issue of urban poverty.

Some challenges, however, remain. Hussain says, for instance,  the problem of drugs still needs to be tackled and policing needs to be stricter. But, he believes that they are slowly and steadily getting there.  The biggest show of trust for AKDN has been the fact that the pirzadas (official gatekeepers of the Sufi mausoleums and shrines) at the dargah have entrusted them with the renovation of the mosque. “Within the dargah there is a 750-year-old masjid where people would interact with Hazrat Nizamuddin. We have requested AKDN to restore it,” says Nizami.

“Community as stakeholders in conservation”

Sohail Hashmi

Writer, academic and historian Sohail Hashmi has a very close association with Nizamuddin Basti. Hailed as a “living encyclopedia on Delhi”, he has organised heritage walks and guided tours of the monuments in and around the basti. Hashmi has observed three very marked changes in the way the space has grown and developed. “Firstly, the park used to be piled up with rubbish and had become the hangout of druggies. Today, it is filled with children. People of the basti can be seen enjoying the open space,” he says. This retrieval of the public space has been one of the biggest achievements of the Nizamuddin Urban Renewal Initiative.

The other equally significant success story of the project has been the upgradation of the local school. “It was one of those sarkari buildings that you look the same, be it an office of a tehsildar or a school building. But the Aga Khan Foundation people have creatively utilised the space to liven it up. For instance, a child climbing up the stairs can learn how to count,” elaborates Hashmi. This change is apparent in the faces of the children, who no longer seem bored but excited about coming to school.  No transformation is complete without taking the youth along. According to Hashmi, the project has managed to achieve just that. “Boys, who had dropped out of school, used to wander around from shop to shop. Many of them are now heritage walk leaders,” he says. “Development is holistic only when the community has a stake in the heritage. Each of these achievements has engaged the community and taken it forward. The kind of work they have done at Chausath Khamba and the baoli are works of restoration but these changes go beyond that.”