Photo of India slum shared in misleading posts about 'illegal structures'

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on January 19, 2023 at 08:41
  • 2 min read
  • By Anuradha PRASAD, AFP India

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A photo of houses built alongside a railway track is circulating in posts that misleadingly link it to a move by India's top court to block an order to demolish homes in Haldwani in northern Uttarakhand state that allegedly encroached on land owned by railway authorities. The photo was in fact taken at a slum in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal -- which is more than 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) from Haldwani.

"This is what the Supreme Court has legitimized today! #HaldwaniEncroachment," reads a tweet posted on January 5 by Priti Gandhi, a member of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with more than 500,000 Twitter followers.

The post attracted more than 17,000 likes.

A screenshot of the misleading post taken on January 14, 2022.

India's Supreme Court ruled on January 5 to block a lower court's order to demolish more than 4,000 houses built on land said to be owned by local railway authorities in Haldwani, pending a further hearing in February.

Railway authorities insisted that past revenue records and surveys showed that the sites belonged to them, but activists argued some residents had lived on the lands for decades and that the order would impact some 50,000 people.

The lower court's original order was handed down on December 20 after the residents were given one week's notice to leave.

The Supreme Court said in its ruling that there could not be "uprooting of 50,000 people in seven days".

The image was shared in similar posts here and here on Facebook and here and here on Twitter .

Old photo

The picture was originally published by photo agency Getty Images on December 12, 2013.

"The Slums And Homeless Of Kolkata," reads the caption of the photo, taken by photographer Samir Hussein .

The full photo caption says: "KOLKATA, INDIA - DECEMBER 12: People get on with their lives in a slum on the railway tracks as a commuter train goes past on December 12, 2013 in Kolkata, India. Almost one third of the Kolkata population live in slums and a further 70,000 are homeless. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images)."

Below is a comparison of the picture in the misleading posts (left) and on Getty Images's website (right):

A comparison of the viral image (left) and on Getty Images's website (right)

A reverse image search on TinEye also found the image in a 2016 article by US broadcaster ABC news about income disparities around the world.

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