India’s Controversial Move to Hide Slums During G20 Summit Raises Protests

KOMPAS.com – India “hid” the country’s slum areas during the G20 Summit last week.

The country’s government put up cloth around New Delhi’s slum areas when a number of state leaders arrived on September 9-10 2023 to attend the G20 Summit.

A video upload showing the presence of green cloth to cover slum areas went viral on social media after being shared by a number of netizens.

From ‘garibi hatao’ to “garibi chhupao”
The “pro poor govt” is comfortably hiding the slum of Delhi for the G20 event, in a desperate attempt to hide the economic inequalities.
When you cannot eradicate poverty, hide the poo, Mother of Democracy!#G20Summit2023 pic.twitter.com/dOt44Qx3kH

— Surjeet Singh Phool (@phool_surjeet) September 7, 2023

The move drew many protests from residents living in Delhi’s slum areas.

The reason is, apart from installing cloth around slum areas, the government also asked that offices, markets and restaurants in the area be closed for three days.

Apart from that, people are also advised to stay at home and their movements are limited.

“They cover our area so that poor people like us and poverty in the country are not witnessed by people who come from abroad,” said a resident, Devi (50), quoted from Guardian.

He regretted the government’s policy.

“When it came time for elections, every politician came to meet us. They ate with us and made appointments. “But, today they are embarrassed by our presence,” he said.

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When the G20 Summit was held, more than 4,000 homeless people living under flyovers and highways were shifted to shelters on the outskirts of Delhi.

Meanwhile, posters depicting prime minister Narendra Modi welcoming the passing delegates were put up outside slum areas that had been “hidden”.

“This is a kind of massive effort to drive out the poor from the city or erase them from public view,” said activist Harsh Mander.

“We are a country with the fifth largest economy in the world, but in reality we also have the largest population of people living in poverty in the world,” he added.

Traders’ stalls were destroyed

Not only did the government cover the slum areas of the city using cloth, the government also destroyed the shanties on the side of the road using bulldozers.

The government argued that the demolition was carried out because the building was illegal.

However, this action raised many questions because it was only carried out when the G20 Summit was about to take place as if the government wanted to hide the country’s deep-rooted problems.

“What surprised me most was that India, the Indian state, was embarrassed by its obvious poverty,” said Harsh Mander, as reported by CNN.

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In its official response, parliament said the program aimed at ridding the city of beggars and slums had nothing to do with the implementation of the G20 Summit.

New Delhi is known to have long been a city with striking economic disparities.

There are many millionaires living in luxury homes not far from where the homeless are.

The city has 16 million residents, but according to the census only 23.7 percent of residents live legally.

The rest live in slums, villages and unauthorized neighborhoods.

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2023-09-14 09:30:00
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