By Bharati Chaturvedi

Who do you reckon is a suspicious character? Or, an alleged bad character, a possible thief? And is this person allowed to share the roads and parks with others?

n interaction with Lodi Road Police Station offered some clues. The station contentedly lies in the shadow of New Delhi’s ubiquitous Habitat Centre, which dedicated a seminar to "waste" recently.

To cut a long story short, a group of waste pickers called us up and told us that the police had picked up two of them. They had already made one visit to the Lodi Colony police station, without any luck.

Upset with a system invincible except by class and contacts, they asked us to help.

They told us that when 5-6 of them had entered the police station, a policeman (one presumes) in plainclothes handed them a duster and asked them to start cleaning cars parked outside.

They protested, saying they had come for some work. He slapped them and said that this didn't matter. They cleaned one and escaped inside, to find their friends seated, on the floor, well slapped. Nobody would tell them anything.Their friends got them to take away their bags and sell off any waste. Rag pickers survive on a day's earning. Burn his bag, or lock him up and the day is lost. If he is unlucky, he'll be locked in for a long time.

I went to the police station. A row of persons were sitting hunched on the floor, including our two rag pickers: Munir and Malik Mullah. It took five minutes to grab the attention of policemen there. They directed us to the Sub Inspector, who explained why…

Apparently, Lodi Colony is inhabited by 'good families' whose houses have been robbed in the last few weeks, mostly in the day. Today, the police decided to go and fix this problem Big Time. They sent out vehicles and picked up anyone sitting, standing or walking in the back lanes. Why? Because only suspicious characters hang around in back lanes: They want to be hidden.

But after much arguing, the SHO finally allowed the two to leave on condition that I (alleged good character) undertook a written verification saying that these persons were not thieves. So I vouched for them. Good character transmitting goodness. The other policemen were livid and loudly grumbled about making a mountain of a molehill.

As I left, the Sub Inspector asked me to tell everyone this: (Take Heed!) No one should be found idling their time by the police.

No one should be found in back lanes, or they will be caught again.

All rag pickers must also carry a bag of waste at all times to authenticate their occupation.

(I presume therefore that an environmentalist must carry a plant, a doctor a stethoscope and students a bag of books.)

But our friends, our Alleged Bad Characters revealed more, after they were released:

None of them were in back lanes. One was in a market. The other was sitting on a pavement, exhausted by the heat. Both had bags of waste. Both felt that the purposes for their detention were: slave labour and pleasing the officials who live in Lodi Colony.

Bharati Chaturvedi is an alleged good character
who founded Chintan