Inside A Troubled Town

8220;We arrived here on a rainy night without any food or shelter, only to find a vacant plot of marshy land into which our feet sank. It took 15 years to make Cheeta Camp what it is now,8221; says 70-year-old Bano Abdul Hanan.

Public suspicion back in their homes, the residents of the small, dank homes in the crisscross of lanes point repeatedly to struggles the community here has faced, before settling into eking out a living from zari work and bag-making.

8220;Most of the crimes that occur here are minor assaults or thefts and there has been no communal tension since 1984. This area is devoid of any organised crime, gangs or weapon trade as most of the people are not devoid of work,8221; said Senior Police Inspector Vijay Joshi, Trombay police station. Many residents also look for work in the Middle East.

Sprawled across about 1.5 sq km, 70 per cent of the residents are Muslim, of whom the huge majority are Muslims from the southern states. Muslims belonging to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kolkata account for only 10 to 12 per cent of the area8217;s Muslims.

Sadiq8217;s family too claim that they have lived here as law abiding citizens since 1976, while Ansar8217;s neighbours say he worked at a bank in Parel.

The camp came into being in May 1976 when the residents of Janata Colony, a predominantly Muslim colony located near the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, were relocated here. 8220;It was known earlier as 8216;Chita Chavni8217;, a cremation ground,8221; said Dr Mansoor Mohammed Amin. The word 8216;camp8217; is derived from the transit camp that the area was supposed to be, for the Janata Colony residents. Amin arrived at the camp in 1980 from Uttar Pradesh and he and his clinic have been here since.

Ahmed Badshah alias Babu8217;s zari workshop is located on the terrace of a two-storey structure and smells of freshly-brewed tea and beedi smoke. Eight of his workers, six of them in their sixties, are hunched over bright pieces of cloth twisting zari threads into a design. 8220;For over three decades I have been doing zardosi and aari work. Workers come from all over India like Tamil Nadu, Benares, Kolkata and Bihar,8221; he says, adding that there are over 2,000 such small workshops in the area.

Be it school bags or travel backpacks Abdul Rahim has been making them for over 25 years now. 8220;I used to work in a zari workshop back in Janata Colony, but after the relocation, bag-making emerged as a lucrative option. I get between Rs 8 8212; Rs 15 per piece, and that8217;s how I have been educating my four children,8221; he says.

Ask Babu about communal tensions and his denial is vehement. 8220;This is a peace-loving, hardworking locality. In fact, Gujaratis and Rajasthanis from the area are our major clients,8221; he says.

The Rajasthanis who own a row of jewellery shops also underline the area8217;s peace-loving nature. 8220;We have been running this shop from 1978 onwards and they Muslims treat us like one of their own,8221; said Leela Sharma, whose husband owns one of the shops.