Games see poor shoved out of sight

Games see poor shoved out of sight

TEAR Fund NZ is appalled at the way the Indian Government is treating its Delhi slum dwellers by relocating them away from areas where the upcoming Commonwealth Games will take place.

Auckland resident and TEAR Fund education manager Frank Ritchie said, “this flies in the face of the Commonwealth Games vision of `sport for the benefit of the people’.” The only benefits were for the privileged few while the poor were shoved out of sight, he said.

More than an estimated 300, 000 have been relocated to slum areas on the outskirts of the city. Many had lost their businesses and social networks in the process, and had been moved into dwellings even worse than what they had been living in before, he said.

Mr Ritchie who was in Delhi recently said along with what the people had lost, there was also the loss of years of international and local government development that had taken place within the slum communities in Delhi. This was a major setback for the NGOs who had been working there.

“The Indian government simply can’t sweep its problems under the carpet for the sake of show. It needs to continue the long term work of developing these slum communities into viable and sustainable living environments.”

ENDS

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