Delhi's Demolition Plan

Just around the corner from the Habitat Centre, a fashionable arts centre and hotel complex in Delhi, there is a narrow strip of rubble. There are strips of rubble like it all over the city. They used to be people’s homes. Not any more.

In preparation for the Commonwealth Games, which are being held here in October, government bulldozers have been scouring the city for unsightly shanty houses and flattening them. Typically, the demolition men have given families just a couple of hours notice before moving in and destroying their homes.

The Indian government is desperately rushing to clean up Delhi’s image before wealthy and influential guests arrive to enjoy their sport. India is a growing economic power, and it sees the Commonwealth Games as the perfect opportunity to flaunt its wealth.

The problem is that these newfound riches are not being evenly distributed. A recent United Nations-backed study by Oxford University found that in at least eight Indian states there are more extreme levels of poverty than in sub-Saharan Africa.

The booming capital Delhi has a gleaming new airport and an ever-expanding Metro network, but even here there is a vast population living on the edge of society - and the edge of the road. It is these houses that have been most at risk from the recent round of demolitions. They were homes that had developed along roadsides because their inhabitants had nowhere else to go. Now they must find somewhere, although the government has not offered them any alternatives. Local newspapers report that police have beaten residents who refused to leave.

There is something odd about the fact that the rubble still remains. It seems that it was not the buildings the Indian government were most concerned about causing an eyesore. I think their fear was that the sight of their inhabitants would prove too much for the sporting delegations. It is the people, not the houses, which the Indian government is pushing out of sight and out of mind. That’s the thing about the Commonwealth Games: the preparations haven’t considered the common people, only the wealthy.

Published in Ctrl.Alt.Shift