Yamuna Gently Weeps

Director: Ruzbeh Bharucha

December 02, 2006
Little Theatre, National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai

Yamana Gently Weeps is the story of one of the biggest and oldest slums in Delhi and in India, called Yamuna Pushta. A slum that gave shelter to 1,50,000 people and which nurtured more than 40,000 homes. Schools, medical and healthcare centres, self-help groups, shops, restaurants, creches, small businesses and various social organizations, worked closely with the community, bringing about immense positive change in the lives of the residents. This massive township was demolished in a few weeks.

In peak summer, 40,000 homes were razed to the ground and more than 1,20,000 people were left to the mercy of the cruel streets. Just twenty percent of the families whose homes were demolished, were in the guise of resettlement, shoved forty kilometres away from the main city and civilization, onto a barren piece of land in Bawana, where there was no proper sanitation, no medical facility pathetic water supply, no electricity, and worst of all, no scope of earning one’s livelihood. The growth of slums, especially in India, is directly related to the pathetic attitude of those in power towards the poor of our country and also due to the non-implementation of area Master Plans.

This documentary is directed by Delhi-based filmmaker and author, Ruzbeh Bharucha, and has been invited for screening at various international human rights film festivals, including the Oneworld Berlin Film Festival, 2006. An interactive discussion with the director will take place after the film screening.