When a city rebuilt forgets its builders: Migrant workers’ struggle for sanitation in Bhuj

Khasra Ground site

By Aseem Mishra* 

Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is not a privilege—it is a fundamental human right. This principle has been unequivocally recognised by the United Nations and repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court of India as intrinsic to the right to life and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution. Yet, for thousands of migrant workers living in Bhuj, this right remains elusive, exposing a troubling disconnect between constitutional guarantees, policy declarations, and lived reality.

In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly formally recognised the human right to water and sanitation, placing a clear obligation on States to ensure universal, equitable, and affordable access, particularly for vulnerable populations. In India, the Supreme Court has consistently held that the denial of water and sanitation—especially on grounds of poverty, informality of residence, or land tenure—amounts to a violation of human dignity and constitutional morality. Despite this robust legal framework, migrant workers in Bhuj continue to live without toilets or drinking water, even decades after they helped rebuild the city.

The Invisible Workforce Behind Bhuj’s Recovery

Following the devastating earthquake of 2001, Bhuj required an enormous labour force to reconstruct homes, public buildings, and infrastructure. Thousands of workers migrated from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and other neighbouring states, laying the physical foundations of the city’s recovery. Over time, many of them settled permanently. According to the local organisation SETU, more than 5,000 migrant families now live in Bhuj, working in construction, security, waste management, and other essential urban services.

Ironically, those who rebuilt Bhuj continue to live in precarious, tarpaulin-covered settlements on public land—without access to toilets or safe drinking water. These basic services, universally acknowledged as human rights, remain inaccessible to a significant section of the city’s workforce.

Women at the Sharpest Edge of Deprivation

The absence of sanitation infrastructure disproportionately affects women. Forced to practise open defecation, women in migrant settlements face daily indignity, harassment, and insecurity. As Bhuj has expanded, open spaces have steadily disappeared, while the population in migrant settlements has grown. Women often encounter hostility from surrounding residents, transforming a basic bodily necessity into a humiliating and risky ordeal.

Repeated demands by women workers for dignified, safe, and accessible sanitation facilities have gone unanswered.

Towards open spaces for defecation off RTO, Leva Patel areas

Years of Letters, No Action on the Ground

Residents of three major migrant settlements—Khasra, RTO, and Leva Patel—housing approximately 125, 100, and 75 families respectively, have made repeated representations to the Bhuj Nagar Palika since 2018. Letters were submitted in June 2018, September 2020, and April 2023, with copies marked to senior officials of the Swachh Bharat Mission at both the state and national levels. Yet, no community toilets were constructed.

In June 2023, Ms. Vishnu Bai, a woman resident associated with Nirman Saathi Sangathan, a collective of migrant workers, escalated the issue through the Prime Minister’s Office grievance redressal portal. The complaint was swiftly closed after a vague assurance from the state government that toilets would be constructed once grants were received—an assurance that remains unfulfilled.

Funds Exist; Willpower Does Not

The inaction becomes even more stark in light of available resources. In 2023–24 alone, ₹5,000 crore was allocated to the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban). The Gujarat State Budget earmarked ₹19,685 crore for urban development, including ₹35.5 crore specifically for sanitation. Parliamentary standing committees have repeatedly flagged the underutilisation of funds. The problem, clearly, is not the scarcity of resources but the lack of administrative will and accountability.

Judicial Intervention and Administrative Evasion

With all avenues exhausted, environmentalist and social worker Ms. Krupa Dholakia and Ms. Fatmaben Jat filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Gujarat High Court in October 2023. The Court, in its oral order dated 21 December 2023, categorically reminded the Bhuj Municipality of its statutory obligations under Section 87 of the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963, and expressed dissatisfaction with the municipality’s attempt to shift responsibility to higher authorities instead of acting on its own mandate.

Despite this judicial censure, progress remained cosmetic. In March 2024, Bhuj Nagar Palika claimed that the process of installing mobile toilets had begun. A month later, it backtracked, citing land-use restrictions at the Khasra site—despite the same land having been used as a police parade ground since 2001. For other settlements, administrative excuses ranged from a lack of quotations on the GeM portal to delays caused by parliamentary elections.

Residents rejected the proposed alternative of using a distant public toilet in a busy area, citing concerns of safety, distance, inadequate capacity, and unaffordable user charges. Since then, no meaningful action has followed.

From Denial to Displacement

Disturbingly, instead of providing sanitation facilities, Bhuj Nagar Palika has recently begun warning residents of the Leva Patel and RTO settlements to vacate their homes and relocate to Khasra Ground. This approach replaces service provision with displacement, deepening the precarity of already vulnerable communities.

A Test of Constitutional Commitment

The struggle of migrant workers in Bhuj is not merely about toilets; it is about dignity, equality, and the meaning of citizenship. When a city denies basic sanitation to those who built it, it undermines not only public health but the very foundations of constitutional governance.

Ensuring water and sanitation for migrant workers is neither charity nor a matter of policy discretion—it is a legal and moral obligation. Bhuj’s response to this crisis will be a defining test of whether urban India can uphold the rights of its most invisible yet indispensable citizens, or whether development will continue to be built on the denial of dignity.

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*Programme Director, Homes in the City, Bhuj–Kutch