Playing games with the poor

By Gaurav Sharma
16 Jul 2010

Delhi's makeover for the Commonwealth Games 2010 has brought unending suffering and misery for thousands of poor living in the city as hundreds of slums accommodating them are being demolished for the city's beautification drive.

Come October 3, Delhi will be all decked up to exhibit its splendid and metamorphosed image for thousands of international tourists, who will throng grand stadiums across the city to watch their respective countries' sportspersons participate in the Commonwealth Games 2010.

However, the cheer and excitement in the run-up to the Games is accompanied by the painful cries that were drowned by the roar of bulldozers. Behind the frothy façade, lies an unpleasant story of forceful eviction, demolition, homelessness and helplessness.

With its ambitious plan of taking Delhi's infrastructure to an international stature, the government is trampling upon the poor's rights in the name of beautifying the city. This mega sporting event has robbed millions of poor of their shelters who are bearing the brunt of beautification drive for the 12-day extravaganza. By the end of the Games, as Delhi's Chief Minister herself as accepted, three million people will not have roof over their heads.

The demolition drive has been on for quite some time. Monday, January 9, 2009, was a doomsday for 605 inhabitants of Prabhu Market slum cluster in Sewa Nagar in South Delhi. Their houses were reduced to rubble in front of their eyes. All the houses were flattened by MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) bulldozers to pave way for the construction of a huge parking lot for the opening and closing ceremony of the Games.
With its ambitious plan of taking Delhi's infrastructure to an international stature, the government is trampling upon the rights of poor in the name of beautifying the city.

57-year-old Shanti Devi, is one of the hundreds to have suffered for the 'world-class' event whose Jhuggi was razed down to ground. With their Jhuggi flattened, her ailing husband succumbed to cold during the chilling nights of January 2009, leaving her with nothing but piles of broken bricks.

"An officer would lose patience if he doesn't find his chair in the office at the right place. Imagine our plight; we have no roof over our heads for the past one-and-a-half years. We have lost everything and now have nothing except memories of our home," says Sunil, another slum resident.

The people of this slum cluster were residing there for the past 40 years. All of them claim to have ration cards or voter ID cards. Either of the two documents makes them eligible for relocation in case evicted from their land. The residents have been running from pillar to post for their right but their struggle remains futile.

On January 12, 2009, in response to a writ petition filed by these slum dwellers, the Delhi High Court had ordered MCD to relocate them as soon as possible. Ironically, not a single resident has been accommodated till date. This amounts to contempt of court but the government is unperturbed.

To avoid possibilities of collective protests, demolitions were carried out in parts and without warnings. "The authorities did not serve any prior notice to us. They came with police force and demolished our houses within minutes," says Dinesh Kumar.
He also alleges that just after two days of the demolition, the Election Commission wrote off their names from its records so that they can't claim their resettlement.
"We have lost all hopes as no one listens to us. We approached a lawyer to file the case in the court. The lawyer demanded Rs 50,000 which we barely managed to collect and paid to him but thereafter nothing seems to be going ahead on that front as well," rues Shri Ram who is a street vendor in the Prabhu Market.

Blinded by the beautification drive, the insensitive government did not even spare the localities earlier planned for the physically challenged persons.

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