Delhi Metro has revolutionized the city’s public transport and has become the lifeline for its people. Delhi Metro is one of those good things that happened to the Delhiites. The city’s history goes back to many centuries and the modern city today features many facades of ancient culture and a rapidly modernizing country. One of the features of a modern city is the metro system that connects millions of people daily. Overhead metro bridges have a story of their own and have added myriad colours to Delhi’s daily life
Exploring the undiscovered and overlooked life thriving under the bridges of Delhi metro leads us to the “Free School: Under the Bridge”. Rajesh Kumar Sharma, the academic crusader, is guiding and changing lives of around 200 unprivileged children by giving them free education under the metro bridge near Yamuna Bank metro station. “When I first started teaching the unprivileged children under the bridge, people called me crazy. They asked, how will you teach these children here? But gradually more and more children started coming in. Today, there are 270 children studying in two shifts,” says Kumar. Classes are run in two shifts; the morning shift starts at 9 am for boys and the afternoon batch begins at 2 pm for girls. The abandoned place is cleaned and painted by the students and elevated to better conditions. The school is not registered under any governmental or non- governmental organisation. The initiative is supported by ordinary people who have come forward to contribute to the noble cause. All the requirements of the school are being taken care of by local residents. Seeing the good cause, the metro authorities granted them permission to convert the metro bridge walls into blackboards. Students in the schools are children of daily wage workers, rickshaw pullers, rag pickers and farmers living in nearby slums. “I have to give my best in teaching these children otherwise they will become part of a generation lost due to poverty. Moreover, I encourage them to get enrolled in government schools so that they can avail some benefits,” adds Kumar. Delhi metro carries approximately 28 lakhs people from one station to another every day. Likewise, vendors operating under the metro bridgesserve many of these commuters. They can eat breakfast in the morning before boarding the train, quench their thirst after a long ride, and buy things of their daily use. The spaces under these bridges are used for business by thousands of local vendors. There is a variety of vendors; from the ‘chhole kulche wala’, ‘cold water@rupees2’, ‘bhelpuriwala’, ‘momos’ to satiate your taste buds and quench your thirst at minimal cost of rupees 20 to rupees 70. Talking to these people helps you to get an insight of hope that they see for their better lives by serving inexpensive food to the working class travelling by metro everyday and how these abandoned areas under metro bridges’ e.g Rajendra place metro bridge, are converted into hubs by these vendors where they tie colourful flowers into small bouquets and sell them at the nearest red light or the man holding colorful headphones or the numerous trolleys of variety of phone covers or variety of earrings to enhance the charm of the women, you name a thing and it is available under these big bridges of hugely spread metro network in the capital city. But these local businesses under the bridges are not as easy as it seems. The vendors have to often compete with the other vendors in the same business; but the unique taste or maybe due to the popularity amongst customers help some to survive. Further these vendors sometimes have to deal with the policemen to grant permission to run the business at particular areas. As we move a little forward, one can again see the competition amongst the rickshaw wallas, auto wallas and e-rickshaw wallas waiting in queue to carry the passengers to the nearby places.
Undiscovered lives
Metro is considered as a symbol of a modernizing city and development but it is not just business arena of the local vendors; these metro bridges show you a different life altogether. These ‘bridges’ are shelter for numerous lives who are striving for existence in the day and trying to find peaceful sleep at night. A lot of beggars live under the metro bridges and during the daytime see hope for food or money in every passenger that passes through the staircase exiting from the metro. One side of which garbage is dumped by the shopkeepers or local vendors and adjacent to that poverty stricken people find warmth for sleep. In some of the areas, these ‘under metro spaces’ are converted into clusters of slum and are homes for rag-pickers.
Utilisation
Taking into consideration innovation, versatility, environmental sustainability and utility of the space under the metro bridges, the areas under the metro station are used as parking space by the working class. At station spaces like Huda City Centre sitting arrangement has been organized with food hubs like McDonald and Cafe Coffee Day. The ‘under the metro bridge’ areas of the Faridabad extension have eco-friendly features and are contributing to the worldwide green movement amid concerns of global warming. Further Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and artist Agostino Iacurci from Rome came together to transform the face of the station. They painted its boundary walls and bridges with vibrant colours. The station has been redecorated as part of Delhi Metro’s policy of utilizing its premises to promote art and culture. The modernizing culture of metro is addressing some unresolved problems that are now being taken into consideration like the great deal of traffic congestion that occurs around some stations, particularly where major interchanges are located. Inadequate space for passengers at road level and insufficient space for pedestrians are some of the factors creating increasingly chaotic conditions. The metro is connected to the lives of the millions of people of the city in different ways. There are stories inside the metro and outside lies the reality. A total reality check of the actual modernizing cosmopolitan metro city. You see development in varied forms in this fast metro life but there also lie major concerning issues that are sustaining in the shelter thereafter. Utility and maintenance of these spaces under the bridges can elevate us to ‘the goals of sustainability’ and can be an example of how ‘a vision’ is a powerful tool to change a million lives.