Tag: forced evictions

By Guest Writer Ketan Aggarwal “My parents were sleeping inside the house. They demolished the house without informing us and set it on fire. I somehow managed to come out of the house. The policemen caught me and beat me up. They were trying to push me inside the burning house. My father was severely burnt, while my mother and sister died in the fire.”  These were the words of Shivam, whose house was demolished during an anti-encroachment drive in the Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh this month. This disturbing incident is not an isolated case of what has been termed "Bulldozer Justice." Similar incidents of forced evictions and demolitions have occurred in other parts of India, including Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. Many political parties, NGO & human rights groups like Al Jazeera have criticized these actions, which disproportionately target marginalized and minority communities, as a form of extrajudicial punishment. The use of bulldozers to demolish homes and businesses has become increasingly prevalent...