While I am writing this, the closing ceremonies of the Delhi commonwealth games are occurring, with the fireworks just audible from my apartment. In case you haven’t heard of it, it’s a kind of a not as good version of the Olympics, for countries that used to be in the British commonwealth. While even the Winter Olympics has some good sports, few of the ones here have particular commercial appeal (or any other sort, for that matter). Apologies to all of my readers who are avid fans of netball and men’s field hockey, but um, there is a reason that they are not at the real Olympics.
The city has gone pretty crazy, as it is a HUGEHUGE deal here: all of the schools have been shut down for the entire two week period, and on a number of the days, all businesses were closed down (we, of course, were still open). Most of what the media has been covering is flaws in implementation of the Games by the Indian government, with sensationalist stories about the village built for the athletes’ stay. At a birthday party for a friend, I got to talk for a while to one of the swimmers who won a gold at the Games (50m butterfly). He said that while the village had some distinct flaws, such as chipping paint, he was yet to find any of the cobras or wild dog leavings that the media had a field day with. The facilities also look pretty impressive on television, though I haven’t been able to get to any because of work (very disappointing).
I’m still of two minds about the implementation of the Games. On the one hand, I am impressed: I live near one of the stadiums, so have gotten the full impact of the show being put on for foreign visitors. There are armed guards with serious looking automatic weaponry on every street corner in my neighborhood, and my route home now features two traffic lights that most certainly were not present a month ago. The Delhi metro was also completed sort of on time and is extremely modern, with only a few of the stations looking precipitously close to falling apart in the presence of a strong wind. All in all, striking, especially considering the dysfunction present in so many other spheres.
On the other hand, my work has exposed me to the negative effects on the urban poor. Nearly all of the homeless persons and beggars have been cleared out of the city, and while in theory, there are some resettlement colonies* outside the city that they will semi-permanently relocate to, within a month or two, many or most will probably be back downtown in order to take advantage of the economic opportunities there. In fact, it has already kind of started: with the closing today, I already noticed a lot more people sleeping in the streets on my ride home. All of this has made me extremely excited to begin our survey of Delhi’s homeless population in March or so, and will probably post more about them later*, as it is a great chance to learn about the effect of the Games. The number of stray dogs has also decreased markedly; one person joked about the government heating the furnaces extra hot due to the number of strays being thrown it, though their report is perhaps apocryphal.
In addition, the government has tried to quash any signs of the poverty in Delhi, which has started to get on my nerves. Billboards advertising the games are ubiquitous throughout any part of the city in which tourists might set foot (the areas we survey generally look the same as always, however). But the signs are being used creatively, placed them around the edges of slums that might be visible from major roads to stadiums. Assuredly, in about a week, they will become the sidings for houses, but for now, the “fix” to poverty is concealment.
While I have little right to say anything about this as a foreign non-citizen, my general thought is that an incredible waste of resources that is occurring. With the billions that India has put into the games, so much good could have been done; I’m sure the billboard fund alone would at least. double the Delhi government schools’ budget! All of the schools have been closed for the games, yet another waste of educational opportunity. And I’m sure the amount of revenue brought in is paltry compared to that spent. Celebrations of national pride are great, but I certainly wish that this one had had a lower cost.
*To briefly summarize, this is an EXTREMELY interesting group. For one, a large number are temporary migrants from places such as Bihar, who come for seasonal work and stay on the streets because it is too expensive to go anywhere else and sleep. I can’t wait to find out about the financial instruments they use to save money and send it home, though weaving through them at late hours has shown me that much goes to gambling and other non-productive ends!
**Basically, sort of nice-ish slums that the government builds when they want to clear a slum and have to put the residents somewhere far away.
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