Gurugram’s smart buildings with glass facades don’t reflect the reality of thousands of people living in their shadows. Off Golf Course Road, the city’s most desired and expensive real estate, jhuggi-jhopri clusters are sprawled across several acres like a patchwork quilt in and around Sector 53.
A fresh spell of rain in the afternoon has turned the narrow alleys into slippery, muddy roads. The air is heavy with the stench of rotting garbage, open sewage, and human waste. For those who live in one of the many “luxury” homes advertised on hoardings, it is stomach-churning. For the people who have built homes here, it is a matter of survival. The shanties have somehow left space for labyrinthine paths, each house cobbled together from rusty tin sheets and tattered plastic. Many of the houses are now locked, their occupants having fled the city.
A locked house at a settlement in Gurugram belonging to a migrant worker, who returned to his home town amid the police’s verification drive.
| Photo Credit:
Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
In shanty no. 128, Nasira Bibi, 34, her hair prematurely grey, says her daily commute to work is filled with dread these days. The police may detain her, she fears, and take her to a holding centre for questioning. Her fears intensified after her maternal uncle, Nasimuddin, a 48-year-old from Murshidabad in West Bengal, and a neighbour, a man in his late 20s, were picked up by the police 10 days ago while returning from work in the afternoon. “They were let off only after four days of questioning,” she says.
Behind the buzzing corporate corridors, where it is business as usual, the Gurugram police have launched a large-scale verification drive aimed at identifying and deporting Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally in the city. As part of this operation, four community centres — one each in Gurugram’s Sector 40 and Sector 10A, Badshahpur, and Manesar’s Sector 1 — were converted into special holding centres on July 18 as per an order from the office of the District Magistrate. The order refers to a missive from the Union Home Ministry (Foreign Branch) dated May 2 that outlined the standard operating procedure for States to deport Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingya persons.
A community centre designated as a special holding centre by the district administration at Sector 10A in Gurugram.
| Photo Credit:
Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
Residents of the city’s shanties say anyone who speaks in Bengali fears being picked up for questioning. This has triggered an exodus of Bengali-speaking migrants. Nasira says people are fleeing even if they possess all the documents required to prove their Indian citizenship. “They usually leave under the cover of night to avoid being caught or harassed by the police,” she says. “This morning, we woke up to find that two more families in our neighbourhood had vanished.”
Most of the Bengali-speaking people who live in the shanties hail from Assam and West Bengal. They predominantly work as service support staff in offices and homes, on construction sites to build the ever-expanding city, and as gig workers in quick-service delivery businesses.
The exodus of migrants in hordes from Gurugram to their home towns has caused a severe crunch of domestic workers and garbage collectors, leading to a sanitation crisis, affecting hundreds of households relying on their services.
Nasira’s employers in a housing society are worried. “Madam ko kaafi chinta hai itna kachra kaun saaf karega agar hum log chale gaye. Darr se sab log ja rahe hain, toh nayi maid milna bhi mushkil hain (Madam is quite worried about who will clean up so much garbage if we leave. Everyone is leaving out of fear, so it is difficult to find a new domestic help),” she says.
Around her is the cacophony of despair: the wailing of infants, barking of dogs, and the bickering of families. For an escape from this world, seemingly in a perpetual state of chaos, a person must simply walk a few hundred metres to the quickly flooding main road, where a luxury car tries to zip through a traffic snarl.
The Gurugram police are yet to disclose the number of people they have detained during the drive. However, Assistant Sub-Inspector Sandeep Kumar, Gurugram Police spokesperson, says detentions were carried out based on “intelligence” and the detainees were let off only after their credentials as Indian citizens were established through background checks by the office of the District Magistrate. “So far, 10 Bangladeshi nationals staying here illegally have been identified and will be deported,” he says.
Fleeing in fear
Pointing at two tarpaulin-covered trucks parked on the roadside near the shanties, Mohammad Ismail, 66, says the vehicles carried the belongings of over 200 families that left the city by buses and trains. “People are leaving even if they have valid documents. No one wants to get into trouble. Even those working in the city for decades have hurriedly left,” he says, adding that his friend who ran a meat kiosk was taken away by the police a week ago. “He had been running the meat shop for several years. His family lives in Delhi. His wife and relatives came to Gurugram when they learnt about his detention. But the police have not released him yet,” he says.
Ahsan Qureshi, in his mid-40s, from Nadia in West Bengal, sits on a wooden counter outside a now-closed meat shop, observing that while people living in jhuggis have faced several demolition drives before, the current situation is different. “The police’s random detentions have sparked widespread fear. The circulation of videos showing police brutality on social media is exacerbating this fear among poor migrants,” he says.
Qureshi emphasises that many residents, including him, possess documents to prove their Indian citizenship: identity cards, mark sheets, and land records. He suggests a more orderly process, like a police camp where people could present their documents, so that those who may not have them readily available are allowed time to arrange for them.
“Verification drives are routine,” he notes. “But this time, the police are taking people straight to detention centres without even asking for documents.” This is why the fear is heightened, says a man sitting beside him.
Nasira’s uncle Nasimuddin says his four-day experience at the detention centre in Badshahpur was “not so bad”. He says the police picked him up on July 19 while he was on his way home from work with a friend. During his detention, he was given food and tea, and did not face any physical abuse. Nasimuddin had moved to Gurugram four months ago to work in the housekeeping department of a shopping mall. He is a trained mason, but ill health now prevents him from carrying out this work. His wife is a domestic help in an apartment complex. To supplement their income, he also cleans toilets in some houses in the evening.
Though senior police officers remain tight-lipped, sources say special teams were constituted in each police station to carry out the raids, especially at jhuggi-jhopri clusters inhabited by Bengali-speaking migrants. “The raids are being carried out for more than a month now, though the detention centres were set up only a week ago. The raids are mostly conducted late at night or in the early hours of the morning,” says a constable, who is posted at the Pataudi police station and has been part of these special teams.
Residents don’t resist
A couple residing at Regency Park-I, Sector 43, says their domestic help and car washer suddenly left to return to their native place in Assam. Despite undergoing the police verification process two years ago when they were hired, the recent crackdown had instilled fear in them. The police verification process is a standard procedure that confirms whether the address mentioned on an individual’s Aadhaar card matches their actual place of residence. According to the couple, many housing societies have made this verification compulsory for domestic workers and other staff.
The couple claims that their staff informed them about a late-night police raid on their colony in Chakkarpur village, during which some migrant workers were taken away. Their landlord had also asked tenants from Assam and West Bengal to vacate, prompting their decision to leave.
Abhey Poonia, senior vice president of the Gurgaon Citizens’ Council, an umbrella organisation of over 80 resident welfare associations (RWAs), says many domestic workers, car washers, and garbage collectors left their jobs over the past few days. “About 80% of domestic workers and garbage collectors have disappeared,” he says. “Door-to-door garbage collection has stopped. Now, municipal vehicles collect trash from outside our societies every three to four days.”
Despite the inconvenience, Poonia states that the council backs the initiative. Sushant Lok-II RWA president Pawan Yadav echoes his views. “Residents are finding it difficult to manage household chores and dispose of waste, but we support the verification drive. It should have been done earlier,” he says.
THEN AND NOW
Gurugram has been built by migrant workers. (Top) From The Hindu archives, a picture from 2004, when much of the city was scrub-land or fields. (Below) The city now has an arterial National Highway running through it and this picture from 2025 of the same area, shows how the city has been built up.
| Photo Credit:
Anu Pushkarna and Ashok Kumar
A contractor, who was hired by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram for door-to-door waste collection, segregation, and composting, says half of his employees have fled the city after the verification drive was launched. “Waste collection came to a halt for four to five days, but we supported our men while they were held in detention centres and helped them get the verification done. We have asked those who have left to send their documents for verification to us. We hope that they will return soon,” the contractor says, adding that more than three-fourths of people engaged in garbage collection belong to Assam and West Bengal; the rest are from Bihar.
“There were some instances initially where police personnel in plain clothes beat up migrants in the name of verification. They extorted money from them. Employers left them to fend for themselves. It created a sense of fear, causing the exodus,” says the contractor, who did not wish to be identified. The police, however, vehemently deny the allegations of physical abuse and extortion.
Community voices
Ainul Sekh, in his 50s, who stays in a single room with his wife and two adult children in Sector 15, says he works as a security guard at a college in Sector 14, but is scared to commute to work. His family had moved to Gurugram in 2012 in search of work and better education for the children.
He says purported videos of migrant workers being beaten up by the police have filled him with fear. “I don’t know whether those videos are fake or real, but I’m scared. My son works as a delivery boy. For the past two days, we have told him not to leave the house.”
Sekh says they have all the required documents to prove that they are citizens of India. “There are no jobs in West Bengal. Can’t we work in our own country?” says Beauty Bibi, his wife, who works as a domestic help.
Barsha, in his 40s, who runs a meat shop in Chakkarpur’s machhi mandi (fish market), says police teams had come to the area to verify documents, but did not pick up anyone. “Most Bengalis in Gali No. 5 are Hindus, so they have nothing to fear,” he says.
Though the drive has reportedly de-escalated over the past few days and some holding centres are empty, it has drawn criticism on a few counts.
Congress MLA from Nuh and former Haryana Transport Minister Aftab Ahmed says the “inhuman treatment” meted out to Bengali-speaking people from West Bengal and Assam, mostly Muslims, is “shameful”.
He alleges that people employed in Gurugram for years and engaged in menial jobs were beaten up and packed into vehicles like animals in order to be taken away to detention centres. He claims that in a few cases, including one in Faridabad’s Ankhir, the police demanded money from some migrant workers in exchange for their release.
“Earlier, Muslims were not allowed to offer Friday prayers in Gurugram. Now, the local police are doing what Raj Thackeray’s party (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) is doing to Hindi-speaking Indian citizens in Maharashtra,” he says.
Ahmed clarifies that he is not against the verification drive, but says an environment of fear is being created by the Haryana government to force migrants out of the State.
The State’s Trade Union Council in a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Gurugram said picking up Bengal-speaking people in the name of verification, “collecting money from them, keeping their documents in custody, and not giving any kind of information to their family members” are actions that constitute a blatant violation of human rights.
In a press release, it stated, “We have also come to know that most of the people who come in plain clothes to pick up people arrive in vehicles without registered number plates. Are they police personnel or someone else? This is a matter of serious concern. As a result, a large number of poor labourers are migrating out of fear.”
Idrish Ali, in his late 50s, a tea stall owner in Carterpuri village, says, “Hundreds of families are waiting for their monthly wages to be cleared by the first week of August before they too leave. The city might see another wave of exodus soon.”
Ali, who came to Gurugram from West Bengal in 1998 in search of a better life, says, “My brother has just reached Bengal.” For him, Gurugram is home.
ashok.kumar@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew
