G20 Summit 2023: Delhi's makeover displaces poor, raises questions on poverty policies

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government hopes the elaborate effort to make New Delhi sparkle — a “beautification project" with a price tag of $120 million — will help showcase the world’s most populous nation’s cultural prowess and strengthen its position on the global stage. But for many street vendors and those crammed into New Delhi's shantytowns, the makeover has meant displacement and loss of livelihood, raising questions about the government's policies on dealing with poverty. In a city of more than 20 million people, the 2011 census had the homeless at 47,000 but activists say that was a vast underestimate and that the real number is at least 150,000.

Since January, hundreds of houses and roadside stalls have been demolished, displacing thousands of people. Dozens of shantytowns were raised to the ground, with many residents getting eviction notices only a short while before the demolitions got underway. Authorities say the demolitions were carried out against “illegal encroachers," but right activists and those evicted question the policy and allege that it has pushed thousands more into homelessness.

Similar demolitions have also been carried out in other Indian cities like Mumbai and Kolkata that have hosted various G20 events leading up to this weekend's summit. Activists say it was more than just a case of out of sight, out of mind. Abdul Shakeel, with the activist group Basti Suraksha Manch, or Save Colony Forum, says that “in the name of beautification, the urban poor’s lives are destroyed." “The money used for G20 is taxpayers' money.

Everyone pays the tax. Same money is being used to evict and displace them," he said. “It doesn’t make any sense." The two-day global summit will take place at the newly