Commonwealth Games leaves 2,50,000 homeless

[Rank]

Real Face!

NEW DELHI: Even as the nation applauds India's winning spree in the Commonwealth Games being held in the Capital, a study by Housing and Land Rights Network says that human rights violations of the city's working poor, including the homeless, beggars, street vendors, and construction workers in the name of the Games cannot be forgotten.

According to HLRN, forced eviction and demolition of thousands of Delhi residents' homes took place for reasons like constructing stadiums, building parking lots, widening roads, city ‘beautification,' and clearing of streets on grounds of ‘security'.

The study focussed on forced evictions carried out in Delhi because of the Games and found that at least 2,50,000 people in the city lost their homes as a direct result of the Games since 2004. The preliminary findings of the ongoing study suggest that the due process for demolition of homes in various parts of the city was not followed, in addition to police presence and use of force, injury and adverse health effects, loss and destruction of possessions, adverse effects on children, death, loss of livelihood and income and no compensation or resettlement offered to the evictees.

The study found that many of these evictions were carried out in extreme weather or at night, like the one at Bengali Camp in January 2009 during the winter festival Lohri. Several children were forced to drop out of school or lose a year because the demolitions happened immediately before or during examination time. Two homeless persons died at Pusa Road roundabout when their night shelters were demolished in December 2009. There were also reports of homes being destroyed while the residents were away.

According to HLRN, forced evictions carried out in the run up to the Games violate national and international legal instruments including breach of United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-based Evictions and Displacement, which stipulate that evictions must not take place in severe weather, at night, during festivals or religious holidays, prior to elections or during or just prior to school examinations.

The UN guidelines call for States to ensure that no one is subject to direct or indiscriminate attacks or other acts of violence and also mandate just compensation and sufficient alternative accommodation, or restitution when feasible, to be provided immediately upon the eviction. The Supreme Court of India also holds the right to adequate housing as a fundamental human right emanating from the right to life.

No compensation or resettlement was provided at any of the sites surveyed by HLRN. The only exception was Dargah Bhure Shah Camp, where plots were allotted in Savda Ghewra to around 80-85 of the 115 families who lost their homes. Though the Delhi High Court had ordered relocation for the families at Gadia Lohar Basti, they were yet to be rehabilitated.

In view of the treatment meted out to the evicted households, HLRN asked for immediate compensation for all evicted families, for those who suffered injuries or adverse health effects and for families whose members lost their lives due to forced eviction. It also asked for adequate rehabilitation for all evicted families in accordance with national and international human rights standards and improvement of living conditions in existing resettlement sites, including provision of basic services, infrastructure, healthcare, education and transport.

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No need to provide source! google it 1000 of sources available from different countries popular newspaper.

 

[Archie]

Should u be reminded about the number of people evicted for Beijing Olympics coz that number is in Millions

 

[roach]

Should u be reminded about the number of people evicted for Beijing Olympics coz that number is in Millions

No need to compare, we should have our own standards. It is a shame that this happened- shows lack of planning and foresight on part of the organizers.

 

[notsuperstitious]

So were these people legal owners? No. Then govt has every right to evict them. either you have a planned city and governance, or don't. There is no middle way.

And to the gentleman who thinks its funny and posting smilies, millions are homeless in your country. Count the smilies.

 

[fallstuff]

So were these people legal owners? No. Then govt has every right to evict them. either you have a planned city and governance, or don't. There is no middle way.

And to the gentleman who thinks its funny and posting smilies, millions are homeless in your country. Count the smilies.

You would not have uttered those words if this was your house. You would be up in arms singing a very different tune.

 

[arihant]

You would not have uttered those words if this was your house. You would be up in arms singing a very different tune.

You would have said different thing if the ownership of land belongs to you and possession to some one else.

If you are so much thinking about this, I see your country have lot of homeless people, why not give it to them. It will actually help you to achieve your motto.

But still I think we should accomodate those 2.5 Lakh somewhere else, provide good homes and help them coming upper in the society.

But remember your argument doesn't stand with reality still.

 

[fallstuff]

You would have said different thing if the ownership of land belongs to you and possession to some one else.

If you are so much thinking about this, I see your country have lot of homeless people, why not give it to them. It will actually help you to achieve your motto.

But still I think we should accomodate those 2.5 Lakh somewhere else, provide good homes and help them coming upper in the society.

But remember your argument doesn't stand with reality still.

Its not about Bangladeshi vs Indian poor. I saw in the 80's when western heads of states came to visit, our General Ershad would round up the beggars and wall the slums to hide the so call "eye sores." Its a futile attempt to deny the reality.

 

[Rank]

The point is all Asian countries try to happy Western countries and put extremely huge pressure on their own citizen .... (Taxes, kick n off from places, organize events for foreigners and hurt own people)

This is pathetic piece of Policy of south Asian countries. In reality Western people laughing on us... West govt provide top priority to own people and 2nd priority to others... South Asian Countries... High priority (Western people) and 2nd priority own citizen...

Lack of leadership!

 

[notsuperstitious]

Its not about Bangladeshi vs Indian poor. I saw in the 80's when western heads of states came to visit, our General Ershad would round up the beggars and wall the slums to hide the so call "eye sores." Its a futile attempt to deny the reality.

Its a simple issue of whether one should tolerate or not tolerate illegal occupation of land by people, just because they are poor.

Don't get emotional about it. I think such slums do not solve any problems, just institutionalise new ones.

 

[Hafizzz]

Should u be reminded about the number of people evicted for Beijing Olympics coz that number is in Millions

SO what you are basically saying is that India is just a democracy in name and is actually no difference from "communist" China ??? LOL

 

[CardSharp]

Should u be reminded about the number of people evicted for Beijing Olympics coz that number is in Millions

This insecurity is sick. Stop bring China into everything you do.

 

[Honor]

Should u be reminded about the number of people evicted for Beijing Olympics coz that number is in Millions

Provide me with good information please?

 

[IFB]

when thousands of farmers committed suicide the gov. did not even care...why would the same gov. care about these people becoming homeless?.

 

[Chanakyaa]

Dear Honor....

Some Text...

Olympic construction in Beijing leaves thousands homeless

Advance notice and compensation invisible

by Spencer Anderson
Sports Editor


Labourers working in a construction site in Beijing. Peter Parks AFP/LJH
Related Stories


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9 March 2005
Eye spy: Beijing

Links

Beijing 2008

Human Rights Watch

Print this story
It was the middle of the night when the bulldozers came. Scores of families living in the building woke to the sounds of the courtyard wall being flattened in the name of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Governments and human rights organisations across the world are hoping that the Olympic Games will open up China and further the progress of individual freedom, but behind this facade lurks a sinister element to the Olympic hysteria that is getting little attention.

The demolition and relocation of homes to make way for the city�s Olympic village has been occurring at a staggering rate, leaving hundreds of thousands of Chinese people homeless and frequently without sufficient compensation.

�The demolition and evictions are nothing new,� said Justin Finnegan, a businessman living in Shanghai who worked in Beijing. �Even before the Olympic decision they�ve been bashing stuff down in an effort to modernise. People aren't being compensated enough or getting enough advance notice. Maybe the saddest part is that many of the places they�re destroying were a lot of hutong (traditional Chinese lanes and alleyways). So the city is losing a lot of its culture.�

Demolition usually comes with only a few days notice, and sometimes none at all. If they're lucky, people come home and find the character chai painted on their front door, meaning demolish. If not, the house is already gone.

In March, Human Rights Watch reported: �Chinese citizens lack any real property rights. When people present their cases to courts, judges are usually corrupted by party officials and developers. Sometimes homes will have already been destroyed by the time a judge makes a decision to even hear the case. There have been complaints of violent evictions by thugs or construction crews injuring or even killing occupants during a demolition.�

Weitao Liu, a Beijing resident and journalist with the state run China Daily said, "We must look at the problem from both sides. Some people want to move because the hutongs do not have proper heating, plumbing, and the narrow alleyways make transportation difficult. But many don't want to leave as they like living in the traditional way and have been for decades. Some of the hutong areas have been protected, but those that have to move should be compensated."

Compensation for the newly homeless has also been a major problem. Developers are supposed to pay inhabitants the market value of their properties, but first this sum has to be given to local authorities that frequently pocket a percentage of an already undervalued recourse. Sometimes the developer unilaterally decides the compensation.

�It�s going to be one of the biggest examples of a totalitarian regime taking away people�s possessions in the name of self-glorification,� said the Independent�s Olympic correspondent Daniel Howden. �Not only that, but it�s going to leave the country�s economy even worse off than it was. It will make Athens� current bankruptcy look like a small bump in the road.�

Reports are coming in that estimate the games will cost China $20bn, making it the most expensive Olympics ever. The Chinese government has put the price tag at $1.608bn with an expected revenue of $1.625bn, netting the country a modest $17mn dollar profit. Yet officials from the University of North Carolina�s business school, hired by China to help the country prepare for the games, estimate that logistics and planning alone would cost $5bn dollars.

Remarkably, for a country with little free speech, the protests are getting louder. Evicted people have been lighting themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square, and petitions and anonymous internet protests have been multiplying. Despite the imprisonment of Ye Guozhu � a housing rights activist who was imprisoned after applying for permission to hold a mass protest against the forced evictions � there are some flickers of progress. The government has issued a series of promises and reforms.

The first reform was a vague promise of more private property ownership, the next a statement condemning violence during evictions, and the most recent was the promise to develop an effective eviction hearing process.

But will they make any difference?

All are welcome reforms, but since they have not yet been put into legislation, it�s doubtful that much can be immediately done for the thousands of Chinese rendered homeless by the Olympic Games.

w.s.anderson@city.ac.uk

Beijing Games Forces Millions Homeless

6/7/2007-- WANG Baoguan burned himself to death while being forcibly evicted from his Beijing home to make way for the city's construction project for the 2008 Olympic Games which China hopes will confirm its status as a global power.

He is just one of the estimated 1.5 million residents of Beijing who will be displaced or evicted from their homes - many of them against their will - before next year's Olympics, the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said this week. "The prospect of being forcibly evicted can be so terrifying that it is not uncommon for people to risk their lives in an attempt to resist; or even more extreme, to take their own lives when it becomes apparent that the eviction cannot be prevented," said a report compiled by COHRE following an investigation into the alleged harassment and physical violence to which those residents who resist eviction, known as dingzihu, are subjected.

China has denied the criticisms. Beijing's Olympic organizing committee and China's foreign ministry said the figures were vastly inflated, with only 6,037 people displaced since 2002 for the construction of Olympic stadiums.

"During the process, the citizens have had their compensation property settled," said a foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu. "No single person was forced to move out of Beijing."

However, in a case study in the COHRE report on the Beijing neighborhood of Hujialou which has been marked for demolition, residents told researchers how the area has been transformed into a slum by the demolition-relocation company which removed windows and steel safety doors from all buildings, removed manhole covers and exterior lighting, and scattered debris in the stairways of buildings where roughly one third of the original population continue to live.

Many are vulnerable and include the handicapped and chronically ill, the unemployed, school-age children and elderly people living on meager pensions.

"Residents also complained that the demolition company had hired thugs to harass residents at night, physically attacking some of the most outspoken critics of the demolitions and dumping rubbish and defecating in doorways at night," the report said.

Over the winter when temperatures hovered around freezing, residents had to contend without heating or electricity, low water pressure and the constant risk of fire.

Their appeals to the local residents' committee, local officials and the mayor's office have apparently fallen on deaf ears as residents say the committee has been bribed by the demolition company to ignore complaints.

Recourse to adequate compensation varied widely, the housing rights watchdog said, adding that those who suffer a significant decline in their living conditions as a result of their relocation could be as high as 20 percent.

The International Olympic Committee said it was seeking a better understanding of how mega-events like the Olympics impact displacement through a meeting with the UN Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing. "As a matter of principle, how the Olympic Games impact people's lives is an important matter for the IOC," said its communications director, Giselle Davies.

THE NUMBERS GAME
1,500,000
Residents displaced or evicted to make way for building work, according to human rights campaigners

6,037
Residents displaced or evicted, according to the Chinese government

80,000
Seats in the new Beijing National Stadium

30,000
Residents displaced by the effects of construction work in advance of the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

20
Families evicted in Barcelona and 200 others relocated to make way for ring-roads leading up to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

40%
The rise in rents in Sydney between 1996 and 2003, during which time the 'Olympic effect' forced many families to move to the Australian city's fringe.

85,100
Miles to be traveled by the Olympic torch in the run-up to next year's Games

5
Continents will be visited by the torch on its journey to the Games

4,500
Minibuses will be operated by a total of 8,000 drivers to transport people to and from various venues

300,000
Houses in Beijing demolished to make way for construction work so far

28
Sports will be represented - just one event more than the Athens Games of 2004.

(Contributed by Scotsman.com)

According to a report, One World, Whose Dream? Housing Rights Violations and the Beijing Olympic Games, released by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, 1.5 million people have been displaced by the Beijing Olympics.

The report claims that since China started implementing economic reforms, the Chinese government has committed large scale human rights violations, illegal evictions and displacement and this has only increased in preparation for the Olympics Games.

The COHRE report says that the International Olympic Committee is also responsible for the violation of housing and human rights in China because they were aware of the violations and still claim the human rights have improved.

A new book entitled Olympic Industry Resistance: Challenging Olympic Power and Propaganda claims that evictions, human rights violations and displacement come hand in hand with hosting the Olympic Games in any city.

The Canadian National Newspaper: Beijing Olympics makes 1.5 million additional people homeless

 

[kak1978]

Real Face!

NEW DELHI: Even as the nation applauds India's winning spree in the Commonwealth Games being held in the Capital, a study by Housing and Land Rights Network says that human rights violations of the city's working poor, including the homeless, beggars, street vendors, and construction workers in the name of the Games cannot be forgotten.

Its funny how people write articles about homeless, beggars becoming homeless again just to find the flaws in CWG. While, most of what the original member posted may be true, there are an equal number of people who gained employment because of CWG.