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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Commonwealth Games hurt the commons

By Gaurav Sharma
17 May 2010

The madness of government and sports officials to ‘prepare’ New Delhi for hosting Common Wealth Games (CWG) in October 2010 has once again come under severe criticism from social workers, civil society and intellectuals. The latest charge is that to create a glittery image of Delhi for CWG, poor and marginalized sections of the society are deprived of their basic human rights. The authorities are putting in the war like efforts for beautification of Indian capital for CWG. But instead of delivering benefits to the masses, holding of such mega events, which will cost Rs 30,000 crore to India, have done a great damage to the economic and social fabric of New Delhi.

A comprehensive report “The 2010 Commonwealth Games: Whose Wealth?” prepared by Housing and Land Right Network and released recently in New Delhi raises many disconcerting questions related to the big sporting event.

“When one in three Indians lives below the poverty line and 40 per cent of the world’s hungry live in India, when 46 per cent of India’s children and 55 per cent of its women are malnourished, does spending thousands of crores of rupees on a 12-day sports event build ‘national pride’ or is it a matter of national shame”, asks the report.

Forced eviction, diversion of funds, cost escalations, bypassing of democratic institutional framework and rampant exploitation of workers at CWG construction sites will have negative socio-economic impact on the city, points out the report.

“There are serious issues about the socio-economic impact which the forthcoming CWG will have on Delhi”, said Former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice M P Shah while releasing the report.

“In the name of beautifying Delhi, the government can not throw street vendors, beggars, rickshaw pullers, and poor out of the city. These people play a pivotal role in the city by providing their services to common man”, remarked Justice Shah.

Ridiculing the Delhi government’s anti-beggar drive, Justice Shah said “The state government has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court to deport beggars to their states of origin. Fraudsters, thieves and corrupt politicians can stay in the city, but not beggars!”

The report highlights that beggars and homeless citizens are being arrested and arbitrarily detained under the Bombay Prevention of Beggary Act, 1959. The Department of Social Welfare had also announced “no-tolerance” zones in Delhi and there are plans to send the beggars back to their States of origin.

Dr Ambitabh Kundu, Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, described the Commonwealth games as very powerful tool to exclude the marginalised section of the society.

Shedding light on the ambiguity of slogans coined in run up to the Games like ‘slum-free city’ and ‘affordable housing’, Professor Kundu said “These slogans mislead people as poor think ‘slum-free city’ means better housing facilities for them whereas elite think that slum-dwellers will be thrown out.”

“The question is not the benefit of holding Commonwealth games but the beneficiaries who are politicians, private players, and elite class,” added Prof Kundu.

Director of Hazards Centre, a professional support group and resource outfit, Dunu Roy alleged that decision making process in planning Games was undemocratic in nature.

Mr Roy charged, “Much of the planning has not been done within the democratic institutional framework”.

Expressing dismay at the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement during Copenhagen Summit that Common Wealth Games will be green and add carbon credit to India, Roy said that such statements represent either poor information or ‘deliberate’ and ‘wilful ignorance’.

According to the report, the budget for the CWG has risen from an initial projection of Rs 1,889 crore to an official figure of Rs 10,000 crore. Independent experts have pegged the budget at Rs 30,000 crore.

In contrast to the report’s findings Roy said that if we include several related infrastructure projects, total budget estimate would reach Rs 80,000 crore.

The report also highlights that “While the total budget for ‘beautification’ projects on Delhi is undisclosed, the amount already spent by the government is hundreds of crores. The streetscaping of just one street, Lodhi Road, is estimated to cost Rs 1855 crore.”

The experts believe that CW Games are unlikely to improve level of sports in India since investment is concentrated on stadiums, which lie largely unused after the event, as in the case of the 1982 Asian games.

The report demands a detailed inquiry into the decision-making and bidding process as well as the total expenditure on the Games. It states that the government should have a long-term legacy plan based on human rights and environmental sustainability.

There is also a need to investigate officials who had overstated the benefits of the Games, withheld critical information and misappropriated funds and also to investigate allegations of human rights violations related to the Games.

“A post-Games audit and detailed social and environmental impact assessment are also required,” the report said.

'World-class' Delhi can't tolerate cycle rickshaw

By Gaurav Sharma
02 Feb 2010


Confiscated rickshaws are dumped at MCD’s store before being dismantled

In order to accomplish their desire to make Indian Capital a 'world-class' city, the elitist and myopic administrators of Delhi are pushing environmental friendly cycle rickshaw out of city to increase space for swelling number of polluting cars.

Sitting hunched with face cupped in his hands, pensive looking Dharmendra was restless. He would often rise on his toes to have a glance at his confiscated cycle rickshaw languishing in the backyard of walled MCD’s (Municipal Council of Delhi) rickshaw store. A sense of gloom and doom had descended upon him as he had been stripped of his only source of frugal subsistence in the city which cares only for the rich and the powerful.

The confiscation of rickshaw was a double whammy to his insurmountable problems. His wife, who had developed some complications during labour, was in dire need of blood. To save bus fare, poor Dharmendra opted to ride his cycle rickshaw to the blood bank. Caught unaware of the MCD’s rickshaw confiscation drive, he was nabbed on the way by Delhi Police and MCD officials and ended up losing his rickshaw before reaching his destination.

That day, nearly 150 cycle-rickshaws were impounded from the same area and dumped into the MCD’s rickshaw store which looks like a junkyard. Dreading over the prospect of not getting his rickshaw back, Dharmendra said, ‘How will I get the rickshaw back? I don’t have enough money to pay the heavy penalty or grease MCD officials’ palms”. His worry was not without reason. MCD, as a policy, dismantles the confiscated rickshaw, if the owner/puller fails to pay penalty within stipulated period.


Delhi’s administrators and the elites, who have considerable influence over policy making and public opinion, believe that cycle-rickshaws are an eyesore amongst shining cars and not eligible to ply on the Capital’s roads because they cause inconvenience to cars and other vehicles.

Ferrying people in their pedal powered three-wheelers, cycle-rickshaw pullers provide the cheapest mode of transportation in the Capital city of India. For elders, women and students, rickshaw is an easily available and reliable source of movement.


“There are areas where buses and autos do not ply and rickshaws are the only way of transportation in such areas. On the sprawling North Campus of Delhi University, rickshaw is essential for many students to move around,” says Vaibhav, a student of city’s Hansraj College.

New Delhi is getting ready to host 2010 Commonwealth Games, and the ‘city beautification drive’ for the Games has become a tool for these administrators to destroy shelters and livelihoods of poor rickshaw and handcart pullers. If the judiciary, which has often come to the rescue of the poor and marginalized of India, doesn’t put brakes to such drives, nearly 6,00,000 cycle-rickshaw pullers and their more than 2 million dependents, will lose their only source of livelihood. “Government should think of ways to spruce up the city rather than banning cycle-rickshaws. The traffic problem is not caused by cycle-rickshaws alone,” Vaibhav says.

There are many citizens who agree with Vaibhav. According to them, these non-motorized vehicles do not create as much problem as the motorized vehicles which cause fatal accidents, and are environmental hazards. “When the whole world is worried about the catastrophic climate change, these eco-friendly vehicles should have found government support and encouragement rather than wrath,” they say.

Ironically, the efforts of destitute are always disparaged in a country which is in awe of handful of elites. The Delhi administration is notorious for harassing, fleecing and hounding the poor migrants from other parts of India who earn their livelihood from rickshaw-pulling and street vending. The confiscation drives, daily assaults, extortion and sheer apathy of Delhi administration have brought misery to thousands of such poor and marginalized people.

The laws of the land are no less discriminating. According to the Cycle-Rickshaw Bye-Laws of 1960, “No person shall keep or ply or hire a cycle-rickshaw in Delhi unless he himself is the owner thereof and holds a license. No person will be granted more than one such license.”

The above clause reflects sheer injustice meted out to rickshaw pullers. A person or a company may own a whole fleet of cars, trucks, or even airplanes but owning more the one rickshaw will invite wrath of administration. On top of that acquiring that single licence is a Herculean task as licenses are not given round theyear. The MCD, at its discretion and convenience, decides the period for accepting the applications for license.

The MCD justifies this inane clause in the name of protecting rickshaw pullers from the greed of rickshaw owners who hire out their rickshaws to the pullers. According to MCD, these owners act as ‘rickshaw mafia’ and charge high rents of Rs. 40 to 50 per day from the rickshaw pullers.

However, the fact is MCD officials are hand-in-glove with such rickshaw mafia, many of them petty entrepreneurs who own fleets ranging from five to more than a thousand rickshaws. To acquire license for several rickshaws in bulk, owners have to grease the palms of MCD employees who issue licenses in the name of real or imaginary rickshaw pullers.

Narayan (name changed), who owns 45 rickshaws, says, “MCD officials would not make money if they legalise rickshaw plying business. First they ask us for bribes to issue licenses and then extort money from the puller because he is not the registered owner. Even after fulfilling their monetary appetite, they assault the rickshaw-pullers and confiscate the rickshaw to keep us on toes.”

Laxman, a rickshaw puller, says, ‘It does not help even if you are a licensed puller. The licensed rickshaw is also impounded without any reason. I hold a license but it has expired as I could not renew it. The MCD has stopped renewing license.”

“Driving a car without a license and putting others’ life at risk amounts to a penalty of few hundred rupees but riding a rickshaw without license invites confiscation. On top of it, the MCD officials often crush the confiscated rickshaws to no use,” rues Laxman.

Not all MCD officials are indifferent to the plight of rickshaw pullers. But they claim to be working under pressure from higher-ups. An MCD official who is not authorized to talk to media, said, “The class which travels in chauffer-driven cars and lives in gated community considers these rickshaw pullers as nuisance. They often get irritated when a rickshaw obstructs their big cars. Their access to the policymakers gives them an upper hand in having their way. We are reprimanded by seniors for not acting tough with rickshaw pullers”.

It’s difficult to predict whether the environment friendly cycle-rickshaw will survive the administration’s onslaught. The policymakers’ inclination towards car manufacturers and owners but apathy towards the poor self-employed citizens is all too evident. The administration conveniently forgets that it’s not the rickshaw but ever proliferating cars which end up choking roads and polluting environment. Any plan to popularize public transport by expanding network of Delhi Metro or DTC Bus service will be effective only if rickshaws are available in all localities to help people reach Metro station or bus stand and to come back home. But this common sense does not matter for those who would never use public transport. What they don’t realize is that rickshaw is not merely about traffic and environment. It is a critical source of livelihood for millions who do not have many options available to them.