Courtesy: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/all-aboard-delhis-beggar-express-1914922.html
(See more related links at the bottom of this post.)
I'm deeply troubled. Very deeply troubled.
An inconspicuous report in British paper Independent shows how the Delhi administration in India is sweeping up hundreds of thousands of poorest of the poor -- men, women and children -- from the city's streets and jailing them randomly. I heard they are doing it because of the upcoming Commonwealth Games in October when sports personalities, politicians, dignitaries and most importantly, corporate businesses will come to our once-colonized land and spend their royal time and money to celebrate another round of the so-called global fraternity. Oh yes, some of them will run, jump and play ball too.
And Indian middle class will cheer.
So, in order to make the city look clean, the streets beggar-free, and the country wear a First World image, Delhi and India governments have taken on an urgent mission, with a religious zeal, to pick up the countless, hapless, half-naked, starving Indians -- men, women and children -- and are indefinitely putting them in India's dreaded jails before they're shipped out to somewhere across the country. What will happen to these God-forsaken millions and their lives, livelihoods, social connections and dignities? I'm sure they'll let us know when the celebrities and business houses check out after the Games. Normally, in India, middle class don't query on social connections or education of street children.
We've seen such grotesque acts of violence in India many times over the past, particularly since India graduated from its mediocre non-alignment, "socialist" days to a glitzy-globalized "democracy" days. We've seen numerous, bloody communal riots, barbaric genocide of the poor in the name of religion and caste, and international terrorism. We've also seen a massive change of government with transition of power from a so-called right wing dark force to a so-called centrist liberal enlightened. The new leaders of India are not the zealots and bigots, but internationally known economists and academics, United Nations celebrities, and of course, the Gandhi Dynasty -- I'm sure they have certain qualifications too.
In 2002, when a barbaric carnage took place in Gandhi's state of Gujarat when thousands of poor Muslims were slaughtered by a bigoted chief minister and his bigoted administration, there was international uproar: the New York Times, BBC, CNN, PBS, NPR and all other big-name media organizations gave us the ignorant a thorough coverage and insider information on the ghastly violence. In 2008, when a group of Pakistan-based terrorists snuck in to the five-star Taj International in the Indian Wall Street city of Mumbai and killed hundreds of hotel residents, there was another series of media uproar; CNN provided unprecedented, round-the-clock, "ticker-tape" coverage of the terrorism. We were delighted to see the extent of responsibility corporate media displaying to unearth major events happening on the other side of the world.
I'll make it short. This time around, however, when another major act of violence is happening in the capital of West-blessed India, I see no outrage -- barring a few small news blips here and there -- either by the mighty human rights groups and their liberal followers, or by the mighty media that spent so much of their precious time and money to uncover Gujarat or Mumbai. I'm sad and disappointed, but not truly surprised.
The liberal outrage -- either of the international rights and justice groups or of corporate media -- is selective, and media keeps manufacturing peoples' consent for or against a social, political or economic event. If the Gujarat (or the 1992 Babri Mosque) carnage is ghastly (and they are), then the Delhi clean-up of the begging destitute is equally grotesque. In the former, poor people die immediately; in the latter, poor people die a slow but sure death because of police torture, forced displacement, starvation, hunger, poverty and depression. In case of the latter, women and children suffer the most. In both cases, the brutality leaves lifelong, negative impacts on the surviving children who'd spare no time to act back against the repressive system with their own acts of violence.
I hope ordinary people both in India and the West (and perhaps some conscientious media people) pick up on this new fascism of the India government, and force them to stop this state-sponsored violence and brutality.
Again, I'm deeply troubled -- to see the inaction and lack of outrage, especially of the elite liberal that screamed their lungs off before. You can't have a double standard to denounce hate.
Thank you for reading my quickly drafted note.
Partha Banerjee
Brooklyn, New York
March 14, 2010
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Post Script.
Prof. Noam Chomsky wrote back today: "Very ugly story. I saw it on a smaller scale in New Delhi in 70's, when I was there as a Nehru lecturer. At that time, in downtown Delhi (I think Connaught Square) there were about 50,000 people in tents or no protection at all. We drove by every day on the way to talks. One day, it was empty. I asked the driver what had happened, and he said, casually, that the city had to be cleaned up for some Asian fair. I asked what happened to the people. He said they were loaded into trucks and dumped somewhere in the countryside. All very casual. No one seemed to care. I saw the same in Barcelona before the Olympics, though there it was not on the same horrendous scale.
Noam
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Follow-up articles:
Commonwealth clean up targets Delhi’s beggars
Ratnabai Kale was picked up at the start of the drive in September, along with her daughter Aarti, 16, and her sister Shobha, 30. "They said, 'You're not going on that bus. Get on to this one.' I asked why; they said because we were beggars. I said, 'First of all, we're not beggars, we're honest labourers', But the police didn't listen,” she said. “They told us we'd be given a four-year sentence in jail if we didn't go along."
http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/commonwealth-clean-up-targets-delhi2019s-beggars
Have A Budget For Beggars
Delhi’s notoriously rough and inefficient mobile anti-begging squads are already in battle formation. (It is well known that to keep their jobs the squads habitually pick up anyone in rags, even though s/he may not be begging). In recent months these units have rounded up 224 alleged beggars, and locked up 124 of them in one of 12 homes for the destitute — all of which are bursting at their seams. A 13th home is being planned for transgenders and eunuchs. By April the beautifiers also expect to have a 24-hour toll-free Beggar Hotline in place — for the city that a survey last week pronounced as the country’s most livable.
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main44.asp?filename=Bu200310have_a.asp
Delhi to banish beggars ahead of Commonwealth Games
"Before the 2010 Commonwealth Games, we want to finish the problem of beggary from Delhi."
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/delhi-to-banish-beggars-ahead-of-commonwealth-games/100424-3.html
Govt to ask for NGO help in rehabilitating city's beggars
"With space for only 2,100 beggars in its homes, no rehabilitation plan in place"
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Govt-to-ask-for-NGO-help-in-rehabilitating-citys-beggars/articleshow/5677900.cms
Related articles:
Delhi NGOs, Cops Lock Horns over Beggars
NGO representatives at the workshop said beggars were a distressed lot, compelled to migrate to this city from other states in search of a living. Said Sanjay Gupta, an activist with Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action (Chetna): "Begging is one of the responses of acute poverty. People are not born beggars and do not become so by taking alms, but are victims of lack of employment opportunities in rural and urban areas. "They are often incapable of working because of old age and physical handicap. Before beginning to solve this problem with strict anti-poverty laws, the government should modify its policies and schemes."
http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/176/32007.html
Please beggar off
(An Indian middle class response to the problem)
"Slumdog Millionaire was embarrassing enough for many people. But their discomfort on finding beggars tugging on foreigners’ sleeves, pleading non-Indians in beggar-English for money during the 15 days when the land that has an economy more powerful than Mother Teresa’s love plays host to an international sporting event will be acute. It’s one thing to cope with a harmless bed-wetting 30-year-old cousin and quite another if he comes out in his underwear while you’re hosting a party in your living room."
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Please-beggar-off/H1-Article1-515993.aspx
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6 comments:
India is subjecting the urban poor to typical neoliberal global city policy. If the poor won't go away, then the governments and corporations and their cronies, police, vigilante and private mercenary agents go into action. The South African government "cleaned" Durban for the UNited Nations World Conference against Racism in 2001; San Francisco sweeps away the homeless and the poor from the city center and other cities pass ordinances prohibiting and criminalizing sitting on the sidewalks or on the grassy lawns of city parks. In Brazil, death squads went around shooting and killing homeless children. Even the so called middle class are servants to this repression against their fellow residents. Instead of investing housing, making the city "passable" for the global elites and their native servants and cohorts, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and other global cities open themselves to transnational capital, expel the poor into the shadows and underbelly of the city or if they're lucky, into the suburban outer rings.
Thank you, Arnoldo for your comments. Yes, make big cities "passable" for the global elite. The others can wait outside, starving and dying.
Dear Partha, Unfortunately you seem to be suffering from an identity crisis. You are mistaken between what you want to write and your 'acquired' British identity. Though major part of your concern is valid, your vantage point got terribly wrong. You seem confused between your sense of responsibility to humankind, sense of superiority in pseudo British identity, frustration for reasons known best to you and, anger because India is today what guys like u do not easily digest. Biased, forgettable & chauvinist.
Read your blog ....
The article in question is available on the internet and I read it too.I assure you I felt like the lowest slug in the universe when I finished!
Since i read about the entire issue here i chose to reply here.
Yes there are beggars and their condition is wretched and the govt. has to really step up to rehabilitate them. Why do you think you are even reading about the plight of beggars? Because some body from civil society cares for them and has asked the govt. some uncomfortable questions and requires pointed answers. So I think that your charge that Indian society ignores what is under its very nose is somewhat overblown.
Nonetheless, the current situation you are talking about isn’t giving complete picture here.
As a resident of one of the biggest cities in my country, I daily face the menace of beggars on street and I am using the expression “menace” advisedly here. It is undeniable that we have extreme poverty juxtaposed with undeniable affluence. But it’s a fact also that among the genuinely distressed and needy seen begging on the streets, there are frauds and tricksters aplenty. Again I am speaking from personal experiences which I won’t be going in details now.
We have systems of checks and balances in place which really work even if a bit tawdry and later than we would wish for.
The poor, hapless, half naked starved beggar on the street certainly makes you hang your head in shame doesn’t it? An image is that only , an image.
The system that the govt. uses aren’t full proof, they are rounded off to be produced at city courts ( very much within the city) and thereafter some are let off with warnings while some are remanded to rehabilitation houses ( again very much with in the city ). Again its true that its not enough and the govt. can certainly take it further and should, by giving these people a thorough training in vocational skills and that’s what most of the civil society and human rights activists are fighting to change and I have every confidence that it will change sooner than later. That’s one of the most wonderful things about my country , we do take time but we do get there , our society and law is constantly evolving to correct the disparities …
I think we sort of get things right in the end , our govt. is thriving and doing as much as it can given the reality of India, the contradictions and the real very real need that we have.
Being non-aligned may seem unfashionable to you, but for young newly independent country wasn’t being non-aligned an honorable alternate to the existing eastern and western blocs alliances during those years?
I am proud to be a part of a dynamic country which is growing apace and driving the economy of the world too where it counts. Sure I have problems and people are insensitive and callous (but no more or no less than the world over) but not all, I am certainly doing my bit to create value daily and contribute constructively towards my society and country. Even if it’s not visible, because I don’t blog neither do I go and share my commitment and projects with the world to applaud, but I am not alone either, there are hundreds out there who are doing the same. Some individually and some in groups.
While I appreciate and respect the world media and the big names that you have mentioned here, the Indian media is thriving and has done its fair share of reporting the events as they happen, raising a powerful voice when its needed and stirring the civil society when its required .If the things have to change, its action by us not the world that will change and the forth estate does a credible job of keeping us aware about what is right and what is wrong.
May be you could talk about the human rights violations going on in other places in the world too ?
Or perhaps you could talk about the vanishing eco systems or the animals which are on the verge of extinction?
Its sad isn’t it, that practical help or really contributing is so hard to come by yet posturing is unrivaled?
Barnali,
Thanks for your passionate comments. I do appreciate it.
My role, as I see it, is not to make people angry (tired of personal attacks since the Born Into Brothels days, and before), but to jump start a discussion based on awareness that's absent in media. Let there be debates, and not self-censorship.
Briefly, I'll make a couple of comments on your post.
You said, "The poor, hapless, half naked starved beggar on the street certainly makes you hang your head in shame doesn’t it?"
Sure it does. But it's not them that shame me; it's the poverty and hopelessness that the people in power created and didn't solve that hangs my head in shame.
I say the same thing here in USA or other such media-glorified countries: the disparity is unthinkable. And dissent is swept off and dissenters silenced -- by media and state machinery.
I am an Indian. It's my motherland. But my patriotism is not for some abstract glories; it's for the poor and working people and their dignity of life. For India's poor women and children. Tagore said,
"sabar niche sabar pichhe sabharader majhe...sei khanete tomar charan raaje"
(He says God lives among the poorest of the poor...among the havenots.)
I couldn't care less if India got a bunch of gold medals in the Commonwealth Games (or tries to get a couple in the Olympics -- for generations). I care about those who're paying the true price.
Thanks again.
I like some assertions and ideas, but disagree with most, simply because of deplorable lack of balance in your article. Yeah, right, let there be the poor all around, while we travel about in our accords and sonatas, shake our head in momentary sympathy, and then go and blog about it. Let us give them space to talk, yeah, because that's where our responsibility stops. Let us see the poor everyday, so that we can feel lucky at our own better situation in life, and use them as an example to our children to study harder.
And be an intellectual by talking about Gujarat (after all, that is more fashionable!) and forgetting the other side of the coin - the plight of thousands of displaced, murdered and emotionally destroyed Kashmiri pandits or the brutal massacre of Sikhs in '84.
Pretended intellectualism is bad enough, but pretended compassion is worse.
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