Delhi inhabitants bear brunt of Commonwealth Games preparations

The countdown has started but Delhi still looks like a messy construction site, with roads filled with rubble.

In their race to showcase the Commonwealth Games and to present Delhi as clean and prosperous, the city's administrators have ridden roughshod over some of the capital's poorest and most vulnerable inhabitants.

The Department of Social Welfare has announced "no-tolerance" zones in Delhi and there are plans to send beggars back to their states of origin. A Housing and Land Right Network report recently revealed that beggars and homeless people were already being arbitrarily arrested and detained.

Deplorable living and working conditions

The authorities have also turned a blind eye to the working conditions for thousands of workers, many of whom do not even earn the minimum wage and are forced to work in an unsafe environment.

Anjali Alexander, the chairperson of Mobile Crèches, a NGO that campaigns for the safety of workers on construction sites, says that the "human cost paid to have this mega-event is the displacement of thousands of families and the removal of slums."

"All the hawkers have been removed. Wherever they cannot remove the slums, they will put up lovely bamboo screens so that tourists and sports people do not see the unseemly sight. The work and living conditions are terrible. There is no safety for children. Women are turned away because they do not want children hanging around on the sites."

Delayed payment of wages

Rajendra Kumar, a migrant labourer from Rajasthan, has been working on beautifying roads for the past six months with a group from his village. He says contractors have not been paying him on time and also paying less than the stipulated wages.

"I don't understand this. Sometimes they say I will get paid after a week and then they postpone that. It is tough when you don't get money on time. The contractors make fools of us. There are a lot of problems but we have no choice. We need to eat at the end of the day."

A committee appointed by the Delhi High Court recently also pointed out that the rights of laborers were being violated on the construction sites. Workers were found to be living in deplorable hygienic conditions and it was revealed that there were not enough toilets for the large number of workers. The committee indicted the regulators concerned for their failure to comply with labor laws.

High security during Commonwealth Games

Security for the Games is another major concern. There will be over 2,000 CCTV cameras set up on roads as well as hundreds inside the competition venues to ensure the safety of athletes and visitors.

But security expert Ajay Sahni said the Games would be safe saying that there was enough capacity and "a tremendous concentration of intelligence activity preceding the Games."

The Games are expected to cost the organizers over 15 billion US dollars. However, in view of the discomfort to many, some are wondering whether the cost of this massive facelift is really worth it and equal to the pride that hosting the Commonwealth Games will bring.

The Commonwealth Games will take place from 3 to 14 October 2010.

Author: Murali Krishnan (New Delhi )
Editor: Anne Thomas