Floodwaters blur Delhi's class lines, but inequality persists in hardship

In the course of everyday life, there is little in common between the lives of the residents of the upscale bungalows of north Delhi’s Bela Road and those in the cramped lanes of nearby Yamuna Bazar, where many security guards and domestic workers stay.

- Jignasa Sinha

Yet, over the past three days, their lives have been tragically brought together by the rising water of the Yamuna, which has blighted their lives in similar ways, though with vastly different consequences. The well-to-do have left their houses and some have even kept their guards or domestic workers back to guard them. The poor have taken shelter in roadside camps and footpaths with little to their name.

Bela Road

Lawyer Eshaa Sangal’s predicament began on Wednesday afternoon, when heavy rainfall lashed the area. By 3am on Thursday, water had started rising. “At night, the area got flooded and nobody could leave on foot or through a car. The electricity was cut off and we were trapped inside our houses. Since we have an underground tank, there was no access to water,” she said.

The family of five people had lived in a sprawling three-floor bungalow on Bela Road for more than two decades. “On Thursday, we survived with hardly any water, no electricity and no WiFi. We finally decided to leave on Thursday evening,” she said.

Sangal said her 96-year-old grandfather was stuck on the first floor for hours. “It [the rescue] took more than 10 hours. We called PWD, NDRF, police... everyone but nobody came to help us. We had no internet and our electricity was cut off. We finally managed to call the Civil Lines boat club. The rescue was done by our staff,” she said.

Some of the staffers stayed back while others left.