Saroaj Devi says that her initial acquaintance with the G20 summit was only after the high green walls that were put up in the slums of the capital city where she lived. Shortly she noticed about the new ramparts which were used to conceal their poverty-stricken homes from the foreign delegates and leaders who were going to descend on India’s capital that is Delhi for the G20 summit this week, as part of £100m improvement undertaking in Delhi gives a gleaming rise at the city, meantime the poor sections have been taken away from vision and a number of slums have been demolished.
Devi commented saying that “political leaders come and visit us, have food with us, and give guarantees, but now they are hiding our localities so that the impoverished people like us are not seen by the individuals arriving from overseas.” “They make fake promises and now they are shamefaced about us being here”, she added.
Posters of Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India have been placed on the exterior of the hoardings which cover the slums, portraying that the PM is welcoming the dignitaries who pass by that way. Moreover, for people like Devi who are residing in South Delhi, in the Coolie camp, this weekend’s Political gathering apart from being a harm to their morality, it also affects their living.
An extensive close down has been enforced on 32 million citizens living in Delhi in order to ensure high security and smooth going roads as delegates like Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Olaf Scholz reach here. Complete shut down at Delhi is imposed for three days. Places like schools, workplaces, markets, offices, retail shops, restaurants, etc will be shut down. Motion on roads has been prohibited, all the food deliveries have been restricted and citizens are advised to stay at home.
Even after the Delhi police having given assertions to make sure people that this is “not a lockdown”, the impoverished people and workers who depend on daily wages of the place, and people who have hardly enough food or money to live on and are not ready to lose their work even for single day, claim that the effect will be completely distressing.
Devi voiced, “Are we not allowed to have food and carry out our daily work?”, for a cleaner like her who earns 3000 rupees is a big thing and skipping the job and a reduction in her salary will not be affordable. ” Even if my health is not well, I don’t miss out a single day for my work, as I can’t afford the money lost. But the poor people like me are helpless in these conditions, we only can put a curse on this gathering as we are facing difficulties and also encounter hunger”. she added.
Apart from Devi many other people are voicing about this like Sunil Sharma, a tea shop owner near Delhi metro station says that he was ordered to paint the shop saffron and hence he has taken a loan of rupees 50,000 for renovation of his shop. Vineet Singh, a person who runs a grocery shop says that he would cut a hole into the barricade which is covering the shop from the customers. People like them are crying, these arrangements are making their lives difficult and affecting their families monetarily.
Around 4000 poor people who were residing under flyovers and roads are now sent to the outskirts of Delhi recently. A civil society activist named Harsh Mander says that there has been “a kind of hectic process to remove the poor from the place or to avoid them being seen by the public which is really devastating”. He also added saying “India being the 5th largest economy with the highest population in the world has a truth that it has more poverty as well and hiding them is also a kind of gesture to economic inequality”.
This shutdown was a complete annoyance for the people incurring three days loss like the roadside vendors. Initially, the Delhi government had asked the shop people to renovate and repaint their shops at their own expense and now they aren’t allowing them to open and run their business.
