In a ten-storey apartment block at Pilligudiselu in Saidabad, Hyderabad, at least seven children run around in the corridors, playing and roaming in the open spaces. These include 13 year old Afreen (name changed) along with other children. Anyone who stops to talk with him hears his shyly expressed aspirations: a doctor, a soldier, a police officer. But little do they know that these dreams are gradually going out of their reach.
Their lives changed on October 1, 2024, when their houses were demolished among the 160 structures in Shankarnagar Colony, Old Malakpet, on the banks of the Musi River under the Musi River Development Project. After the demolition, most of the families in Shankarnagar were shifted to government-built two-bedroom, hall and kitchen (2BHK) units in Saidabad, about three kilometers away from their former neighbourhood. The government promised them relocation assistance of ₹25,000 and financial assistance of ₹2 lakh. However, some families said they were also allotted 2BHKs at locations around 20 kilometers away.
futile search of schools
As families moved to new homes, many of those this reporter spoke to said their economic activity had become increasingly disrupted. The immediate and long-term consequences of this instability are most visible in children, who have not only witnessed the demolition of their homes, but are struggling to adjust to unfamiliar surroundings and rebuild a sense of stability. Most of the families relocating to Saidabad are from the Muslim community, mainly from the lower-middle class. Some families enrolled their children in government residential schools in the hope of continuing their education. Others continued to send their children to their old schools.
But for many, especially girls and boys from homes where the breadwinner is absent due to addiction, death, or ill health, even these limited arrangements are now beginning to break down.
Before the demolition, Afrin, a Class 4 student, studied in a nearby private school with her sisters in Class 3 and UKG. School fees, ranging between ₹300 to ₹500 per child per month, were manageable and the school was within walking distance. Her mother, both a breadwinner and a housewife, earned ₹5,000–₹6,000 per month by working as a cook, and set aside about ₹1,500 of this for her daughters’ education.
“Although it was hard, I continued to work because I wanted my children to study. But now I can’t take it anymore, because I can’t find work here, and I can’t go back to my old workplace because of the distance,” she said.
“We have been allotted a house in Pratap Singaram, 20 km away, just a few days ago. I am hesitant in going there. Going so far would mean being completely cut off from my family,” she said, adding that she is living with her in-laws and has not received financial compensation.
Meanwhile, at least two boys in their teens have taken up labor work in the absence of their fathers, as their mothers are unable to find work after being transferred. One mother said, “I wanted my son to go to school, but I couldn’t afford a private school.” “I am willing to put him in a trust school nearby, because he wants to study.”
MW Ansari, founder member and head of the Kurmaguda Academy for Relief and Education (KARE) trust school in the area, says his school saw an immediate increase in admission requests in the middle of the academic year after families moved into 2BHK units. He said, “Ours is a trust-run school with small classes, which aims to serve underprivileged children. We could not accommodate the new students, but we did not have the courage to say no, although eventually we had to do so.”
According to him, families are not willing to enroll their children in nearby government schools. “There are a lot of concerns like addiction and bullying.” He said there should ideally be a separate school or system for those who are newly shifted.
children take care of small children, work
Similar patterns are visible in other demolition-affected communities in Mumbai and Chennai.
More than 600 families from Jai Bhim Nagar in Powai were displaced during the demolition drive by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in June last year. Most of the displaced families belong to Scheduled Caste. The BMC’s anti-encroachment drive evicted residents from a settlement that took shape in the early 2000s, during a period when Maharashtra’s Mumbai real estate sector was expanding rapidly.
Huma Namal of Sabki Library, a student-run organization set up to support the community in Mumbai, says that about 20% of the settlement’s approximately 250 children were either out of school or had their regular schooling seriously disrupted. The library built on the footpath was also demolished this year.
A 17-year-old girl is also among those who dropped out of school. She has since enrolled in open schooling. Now her day starts from 9 am to 5 pm as a domestic help, followed by tuition classes from 6 pm to 9 pm
Many other girls and their male cousins faced similar obstacles. He told this reporter over the phone that, before the demolition, families relied heavily on their community networks: mothers would leave their kindergarten-age children with relatives living nearby, and the settlement had open spaces where children could play safely. Expenses apart from the electricity bill were very low, and his mother’s income, apart from ration assistance, was enough to manage.
Everything changed after the demolition. While some families were living on the footpath next to the cleared site, others were forced out again when the footpath in the opposite direction was cleared this August. “So we had to find a house on rent, and the rent here ranges between ₹10,000 to ₹15,000. Now that we have managed to find a place, I have also started going to work with my brother, who left regular schooling and joined a vocational training course after Class 10, and my mother.”
Her aunt, who joined the call, says she goes to work during the day, leaving her younger child in the care of her two elder daughters, who study in classes 9 and 7. The family lives near the footpath, she says, and the child often wanders dangerously close to the road. As a result, the school education of the two elder girls has been disrupted.
Activist demands child planning before eviction
Vanessa Peter of the Information and Resource Center for Disadvantaged Urban Communities (IRCDUC) says demolitions and relocations across urban resettlement sites in India disrupt schooling, break down community support systems and deepen vulnerabilities. According to him, since the early 2000s, more than 43,000 rehabilitation houses have been constructed in Kannagi Nagar and Ezhil Nagar and Perumbakkam in Chennai. The families bearing the brunt of this mainly belong to the SC and BC communities.
A survey by IRCDUC in Ezhil Nagar identified 112 children who had discontinued their education after relocation. Of these, only 47 have been re-enrolled in school by IRCDUC. Ms Peter says it has been extremely difficult to bring the remaining children back into the education system.
“From on-the-ground experience, forced eviction destroys a child’s environment, documentation, community support, access to school, security, income stability and mental well-being, all of which make re-entry extremely challenging. Inter-community hostility and bullying also drive children out of school, as newly relocated children often struggle to find acceptance or a sense of belonging in their new environment,” he said.
One of the fundamental issues that needs to be addressed is the lack of any proper assessment before eviction. She says state governments and even the Center often treat the basic enumeration exercise as an alternative to Social Impact Assessment (SIA). But only the initial family details are entered in the calculation. It does not take into account a child’s schooling status, class level, learning needs, vulnerabilities, health problems or even the distance they travel to school. As a result, children’s specific educational needs are never mapped or planned before families relocate, leaving them to bear the brunt of the disruption. There is also no express legal mandate to require SIA before eviction.
These children face some of the most immediate and long-term consequences of forced resettlement, she says, because education, the tool that can enable mobility and lift families out of poverty, is denied to them. Meanwhile, their families are struggling with severe economic instability and are only focused on securing their next source of income. She adds that the system must have proper care and support plans for children during such removals, because even within the same community, children have very different mental and physical health needs. Many of those who saw their homes demolished continue to suffer emotional and psychological effects long after the demolition.
(It is written by Bhaskar Basava, a Hyderabad-based freelance journalist who primarily covers politics, human rights and environmental issues from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. He is now expanding his work to include education in all states.)
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