What would you sacrifice to carry on studying in your mother tongue? For Durga and nearly 200 families in Delhi’s Ashram and Sarai Kale Khan, the answer is in their decision to pick cramped quarters and crippling rent over free government housing. All to ensure their children can continue learning in Tamil.
“We are being disturbed in the middle of our exams. We don’t know much Hindi…Tamil is our main language. If we shift, our studies will be greatly disturbed,” says Durga, a class 12 student, at a rented room in Ashram, days after 370 homes in Jangpura’s Madrasi Camp, including hers, were bulldozed by the Delhi Development Authority on June 1 to facilitate the clean-up of the Barapulla drain.
Nearly 215 of these 370 families, most of them Tamil, were offered relocation nearly 52 km away, in Narela, under the Prime Minister’s Jaha Jhuggi Waha Makaan rehabilitation scheme. But around 200 have chosen rented accommodation elsewhere. The reason? Many of these families want their children to continue studying in the Delhi Tamil Education Association school at Lodhi Road.
No such Tamil-medium school operates in the vicinity of Narela even though officials point to the existence of nine other schools within a five-km radius.
“We have no choice,” Zenga, 50, one of the distressed parents, told Newslaundry. “Our children will study only at the DTEA school on Lodhi Road. We won’t send them anywhere else.”
DTEA is a network of seven secondary schools across Delhi that follow the CBSE curriculum. These schools are government-aided minority institutions funded by the Delhi government and voluntary contributions from students’ parents. Established in 1924 to support economically disadvantaged Tamil families, these schools also serve as cultural centres for students from Tamil families.
According to displaced residents, 256 children currently attend schools near Jangpura – 188 at the DTEA Tamil-medium school on Lodhi Road and 68 in other institutes.
Apprehension over final-year exams
Some students like Durga have heard claims that a school will be eventually built in Narela, but there’s no clarity if Tamil would be taught there. “They say they’ll build a school there, but what about now? My exams are this year,” Durga said.
Chandani, 18, has been studying in the same Tamil-medium school since class 1. Now in class 12, she fears that the sudden relocation will disrupt her final year of schooling. “Everything there [in Narela] is in Hindi. But our language is Tamil. Most children here know only Tamil. Very few know Hindi. I only understand a little,” Chandani said.
Kanimozhi, a Tamil teacher at the DTEA school who teaches classes 9 to 12, said, “Teachers in the Narela school need to teach these students in their language…I like Hindi, but Tamil students must learn Tamil. It’s their language.”
Speaking to Newslaundry, advocate Parasanna, who represented the residents in the Supreme Court, pointed out that the move directly affects the educational continuity and language access of over 250 Tamil-speaking children.
As per DUSIB guidelines, if in-situ upgradation of a slum is not possible, families must be resettled within a five-km radius, so that schools and essential services remain accessible. “This rule can only be relaxed under exceptional circumstances, which must be recorded with valid justification,” Parasanna claimed. “But in the case of Madrasi Camp, no such feasibility study was done, nor was any exception cited.”
Newslaundry reached out to Rajiv Dutta, deputy director, DUSIB, and Vedhita Reddy, Director of the Education Department, Delhi, for comment. This copy will be updated if a response is received.
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