Mumbai:
Images of SRPF jawans, forced to squat at the Gateway, shocked India. Now NDTV has found more proof of how other SRPF jawans posted in Mumbai are forced to live in utter squalor.
These are evidence that our governments continue to turn a blind eye to the plight of the men who risk their lives for us every day.
"In the night rats run around in our room. Our jawans fall ill regularly. We get up early and bathe on the streets," says a jawan.
A tiny hole of a room is home to 15 SRPF jawans, posted in the Mahim area.
The accommodation, if you can call it that, courtesy the Mumbai Police.
"We live like homeless people on the street. Eleven to 12 people sleep in one room. Some sleep in the van. When shopkeepers close their shops, we spread out our beds outside the shops and sleep," says the jawan.
The SRPF jawans, posted in Mahim and around the Gateway precinct, are just a handful of the over 1500 jawans, who came to protect Mumbai post 26/11.
If there's a silver lining to their condition, at least some institutions like the Bombay Stock Exchange have taken pains to care for their jawans posted for the protection.
Jawans at the BSE say they have proper dormitories, with fans and other amenities.
The whole situation in Mahim perhaps is a proof that even after 26/11, our bravehearts may be standing by us bravely, but our governments are clearly not standing by them.