A few landless families live in small boats throughout their lives… penniless, houseless and hopeless. Ikhlaq Qadri meets a few such families in Dal Lake near Nishat.

As dusk falls the husband puts up the tarpaulin over the boat on small poles to prepare for the night, while the wife holds their baby close to her inside the Pheran to shield the child from the freezing winter chill. The boat they dwell in is just an ordinary one with water seeping in from the pores plugged with polythene and twigs.

The family’s limited possessions take very little space in the small boat. Little bedding, some overused blankets, few utensils and a kerosene stove is all that the family has.

They neither have access to potable water, electricity nor a structure they can call home. They work, eat, live and die in the boat.

Every day they remove the tarpaulin placed overhead and start their work of catching fish even when the mornings are foggy and cold.

The family is one among the group of households who throughout their lives live in small boats, in the Dal lake near Brien, Nishat.

“We have the worst lives in the world,” says Shakeel Ahmad Dar in a curt tone.

Dar lives in the boat along with his wife and their two small children. Their day like the rest of their neighbours starts with a challenge to earn some money to buy food.

“The people aren’t happy with us. God has forsaken us and now even fish are indifferent to us as they are vanishing from the lake,” says Shakeel.

He says their only source of income is the fish they catch in the lake. “Over the years the fish catch has gone down drastically, as fish stocks have dwindled in the lake,” says Shakeel, “From the last three days I have only been able to catch half a kilogram of fish.”

The winters exacerbate their agony. “As the Dal (lake) freezes, we are marooned at one place for days and can’t go for fishing besides the biting cold makes us and our children shiver,” he says.

The few blankets and some rags in the name of the bedding is all they have to do with. “To get kerosene is an uphill task,” says Shakeel’s wife, who helps him in his work.

The families depend on charity for clothes as they don’t earn enough to buy themselves.

“You see clothes my son is wearing, these were donated by some generous people,” said Shakeel.

Their one and a half year old son needs to be protected from chill and the major threat of falling into the lake.

“We (boatmen families) have lost so many children who drowned in water and we only could get their dead bodies back,” said Shakeel’s sister who lives in another nearby boat.

These families allege that the government was more concerned about Dal and “how it smelled as it was a major attraction for tourists” than the families like their’s living in Dal.

“It is ironical that tourists are important not the inhabitants,” said Shakeel.

On an average these families earn around Rs 100 a day each.

“We are worse than beggars and the Dal is losing its glory along with the life it hosted,” said Shakeel pointing towards filth present in Dal.

Cursing the day he was born, Shakeel said, “Even people who clean rubbish sleep like kings at night. But we are even deprived of that.”

Shakeel had to take out a loan for the boat, he lives in along with his family.

“I have to pay monthly instalment of Rs 500 to the lender,” he says.

The Rs 500 instalment is, apparently, too huge an ask in the winter months as the family has to borrow money to buy food.

“Dasgeeras path chuv mae karz karun, teli haeki bati khaeth shaymas (I swear that I have to borrow money to buy food for dinner,” said a worried Shakeel.
Pointing towards his little nephew and niece, Imtiyaz and Saleema, Shakeel said, You see yourself how they drink the poisonous water of Dal as there is no other option. They live on the nature’s mercy,.”

There are atleast two government schemes which provide a one-time grant of around Rs 50000 for houseless families and families living in tin sheds or dilapidated structures.

However, landless families can’t benefit from the schemes as they don’t have land to build houses on, said an official not authorized to speak to the media.
While taking our leave Shakeel said” Ministers are busy in filling their own pockets, why should they care for the poor.”

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