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Now that the Commonwealth Games are over Mani Shankar Aiyar and others who fled the city have returned to Delhi to resume their tirade against those who organised them.

I am in agreement with Mani Shankar as far as believing that a country which can’t afford feeding its people and providing them shelter had no business to squander thousands of crores on such a grand scale. However, I am happy to see our boys and girls made quite a haul of gold, silver and bronze medals. Apparently, our guests enjoyed our hospitality. According to a banner front-page headline news of the ‘Mail Today’, sewage pipes in the Games villages were clogged with used condoms and had to be opened up to let the water flow. Foreign and indigenous ladies of leisure did flourishing business. But what impressed everyone were the opening and closing ceremonies. I have never seen spectacles on so grand a scale, so artistically conceived and skillfully executed. I hope they are shown on TV for times to come. And those who planned and executed them be given gold medals studded with diamonds.

By sheer chance I got to know one who designed the costumes of the dancers and tribals who took part in them. It was Seerat Narindra, cousin of the actor Kabir Bedi. She was born in Milan in 1977 and spent many years in Italy. She enrolled in the University of Milan, and apart from other subjects got a diploma in dress designing. She put in skills she had acquired in Italy and India to make costumes authentic. I first met her when her uncle BPL Bedi (Kabir’s father) was on his visit to Delhi. He wanted to hear Qawallis before he returned to Italy and asked her to invite Gyani Zail Singh and me to the function. I was very taken by Seerat’s looks: tall, fair and well-proportioned. At our last meeting I asked her why with all her assets she had not got married. She gave me a withering look and replied tersely: “I’m married to my job.”
I construed it as telling me to mind my own bloody business and not to stick my dirty nose into her private life.

Sharing birthdays

My neighbour Reeta Devi Varma is very birthday conscious. She told me, “I was born the same day and year as Amitabh Bachchan — October 11, 1942. We are Libras represented by Scales of Justice. But see where he has gone — right on the top — and where I am — at the very bottom.” It is true the careers of the two are poles apart. He is an Uttarpradeshi of Hindi-Sikh lineage. She is Assamese Bengali and describes her religion as Hindu-Buddhist -Osho. He celebrates his birthdays lavishly, entertaining his friends and relations. Millions of his fans throughout the country also celebrate the occasion. He earns crores of rupees everyday. She earns nothing but goodwill. He is amongst the richest of the rich. She is a beggar ever asking for money from anyone she meets. She does not throw any birthday parties. Instead she drops in my home with a couple of stray dogs (she has picked up seven abandoned from the streets). She takes a sip of my Single Mart. I have kababs specially made for her dogs. I give her a birthday present which she accepts as her due.

Why do I take notice of Reeta Devi? She was a stunning beauty when I first set my eyes on her over 20 years ago. I did not know she lived in the neighbouring block. Her husband Bheem Varma (nephew of Maharani Gayatri Devi) had given up his job and spent most of his time feeding stray dogs and taking those sick to the vet. After he died, she took up the task. She received government allowance from Maneka Gandhi, who was then minister in the Central Cabinet. She found another patron — Kapil Sibal. He gave her a mobile clinic and money to hire doctors and nurses and buy medicines. Likewise, Sir Elton John gave her a second mobile clinic. So she is out from 6.30 am to 6.30 pm treating the poor in Delhi slums. Occasionally, she drops in on me in the evening and tells me triumphantly: “Today we treated 560 patients.” She has been promised a third mobile clinic by the Ansals and money to hire doctors, nurses and buy medicines. By the end of the year she hopes to heal over 1,000 sick men, women and children everyday.
I am sure there are thousands of men and women in our country who spend most of their time, energy and money looking after other people. I happened to know only one Reeta Devi Varma. That is why I look forward to celebrating her birthdays in my home.

Love makes mad

A lady who was not keeping too well asked her husband, “How much do you love me?”
Man: So much that after your death I will go mad.
Wife: Will you remarry?
Man: What can one say! A mad man can do anything.” (Contributed by Kuldip Salil, Delhi). Post mortem Khushwant Singh, October 22

Even the Closing ceremonies did not go smoothly. The Australians had threatened to pull out of the closing ceremonies if the filth and the theft is the villages was not stopped.

The Games were supposed to be a reflection of Shining India. It has the opposite effect. The collapsing bridge, the incomplete Athletic Village, the filth in the rooms, the snakes, the child labor, women abuse, the monkeys the diarrhea virus in the swimming pool and the theft added to the general sense of chaos and confusion at the CWG-Delhi.

NEW DELHI: A day after the Commonwealth Games got over, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has resumed its assessment of various projects related to the mega sporting event which were mired in allegations of corruption.

The CAG today sent its inspection officials to the CPWD office located inside S P Mukherjee Stadium to check the accounts related to the Games projects.

The audit work for CWG is related to work payments, contracts and leasing of sports equipment among others.

“We have started with the CPWD office inside the S P Mukherjee Stadium today. Now that the atheletes have vacated the venues, we will gradually start sending our inspection officers to all the stadia,” an official with the auditing watchdog said.

The CAG had begun assessing the Games’ expenditure in August, but had to stop the audit related works in the last week of September as they could not access the premises of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD).

The official said the CAG had to suspend the audit works for over a fortnight since most of the CPWD offices are located inside the venues which had the athletes till yesterday.

The official said the biggest venue, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, is yet to be inspected by the CAG and the government auditor would soon send its inspectors there.

The statutory auditor expects to submit the final report to the government by January-end, to be presented in the Budget session of Parliament in February.

Over 7,000 athletes and other staff from 71 nations participated in the 12-day CWG which ended yesterday.

In August last year, the CAG had submitted an evaluation report to the Prime Minister’s Office and the sports ministry pointing out the slow pace of progress of all the projects connected with the Games.

The CAG study last year had also highlighted that all the projects would struggle to finish on time.

As per international guidelines, all CWG projects were to be completed by May 2009 and the last year should have been kept for trial runs.

However, after the award of Games-related work to India in 2003, no activity was undertaken till 2006.

The CAG audit would look into how the balance between the cost and quality has been maintained and whether there has been any cost overrun.TOI

The best that can be said about the CWG-Delhi is “Thank God it is over”. Surely you don’t expect the TOI as an objective narrator of events. Kindly read the British, Australian, and even Nigerian boards to get an earful about the CWG and “Shining India”. The stories and jokes will live forever.

The CWF-Delhi will be remembered as the “Slumdog Games”.

Bharati racism against Africans in general and South Africans in particular are nothing new. Kenyans, and Ugandans were so upset with the Indian racism that they expelled all the Indian. South Africa saw Gandhi’s racism where he called the Zulus and Africans “subhumna” that stink “like animals”.

The Delhi Games saw African objections ignored and them being placed in the worst quarters. If a snake had shown up in the Australian quarters, all hell would have broken lose.

The humble South Africans did not complain and took care of things. Even today they promised to clean up their filthy surroundings and sanitize their own toilets.

NEW DELHI: South Africa led the charge of the African nations against the shoddy Commonwealth Games preparations on Sunday. As the Delhi government carried out frantic clean-up operations in the Games Village, South Africa set the cat among the pigeons by saying a snake had been found in an athlete’s room.

South Africa’s high commissioner to India Harris Majeke told reporters a snake had been found in the room of an athlete at the Games Village. “That was really a threat to the lives of our athletes,” he said, complaining of filth in the living quarters including basements of the buildings. “When everything is done, then we will ask our teams to come,” he added.

The South African criticism is part of a larger grouse of the African nations against organisers of the Commonwealth Games. While the OC has been overly sensitive to the wishes of countries like the UK, Australia and Canada, the African countries found that they had been virtually ignored by the organisers.

The first site visit for the African countries to Games venues was arranged only this week. For months, said sources, African countries have been asking for information from the government, but in vain. Last week was the first time they got any briefing from the ministry of external affairs.

MEA has itself been kept out of the Games preparations, and was brought in virtually at the last minute when the damage control exercise had to be rolled out. Since they are the most familiar point of contact for the African nations, it was particularly frustrating that nobody was telling them anything, least of all the organisers. The first briefing was, sources said, little more than a bare bones briefing, because the MEA itself was not kept on board.

In fact, privately, the word from many African countries is that India was practising the same kind of racism against the African countries that India itself has complained against.

Out of the 53 nations in the Commonwealth, there are 19 from the African continent, all of whom are participating in the Games. This week, India will also play host to the president of Mozambique, a member of the Commonwealth, though it used to be a Portuguese colony and not a British one.

On Saturday, a visibly upset high commissioner of Rwanda — a former Belgian colony and one of the most recent additions to the Commonwealth — was seen looking for the Indian quarters in the Games Village. “I want to see their quarters. The place they have given us for our accommodation is not clean and my athletes are arriving here tomorrow,” was his explanation.

However, India got a vote of confidence from South Africa’s Olympic boss. In a statement, Gideon Sam said he would himself clean toilets to ensure the success of the Games. “Our athletes will have no excuses if they do not perform at the Games,” Sam, president of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), said ahead of the team’s departure on Sunday.

“If they are unhappy with their rooms because they have not been swept, they must take off their jackets and sweep them themselves. We will not complain. South Africans do not do that,” Sam added. “And when I get there on Friday, if a toilet is not clean, I will clean it myself.”

It only adds to India’s shame.

• However the Games turn out, Delhi has failed. It has failed to put on an effortless show of false glamor.
• It has failed to muzzle its muckraking press. It has failed to round up its poor and homeless and ship them into the countryside.
• And it has failed to persuade a skeptical public that costs skyrocketed to more than 10 times the original estimates  simply because the organizers are committed to making this the best games ever.
• The lesson is that it is futile to create islands of cleanliness and modernity for the rich, if they are to be surrounded by a sea of poverty, sickness and filth.

NEW DELHI, India — There’s still a chance that Delhi will pull off the Commonwealth Games next month. In India, anything is possible. There’s even a chance that people will call this futile exercise in mismanagement a success. But that would be a real shame.

Shame is the word of the week here, with 10 days left before the scheduled opening ceremony of what the erstwhile jewel in the British crown once hoped would be the largest and most impressive Commonwealth Games ever. Now, the growing fear is that the event may not come off at all, as the threat looms of a boycott by England, Scotland and Wales.

Even as organizing committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi struggled to persuade a skeptical and hostile press that the city and venues would be ready, the seemingly endless problems mounted.

Gunmen on a motorcycle shot two Taiwanese tourists in a possible terrorist attack over the weekend. On Tuesday a footbridge attached to one of the entrances for the showpiece Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium collapsed, injuring 27 workers and leaving three laborers in critical condition.

As unusually persistent monsoon rain pounded on, a section of the ceiling fell in a few hours later. An epidemic of dengue fever, exacerbated by the delayed construction work, overwhelmed area hospitals. And, horror of horrors for India’s fastidious Hindus and their stiff-upper-lipped onetime rulers alike: Inspectors discovered human excrement in some of the posh flats of the hastily built Games Village.

Several prominent athletes have dropped plans to compete — some making excuses and others citing concerns about health and safety. Scotland and Canada have delayed their teams’ departure for Delhi and other teams have said they may cancel their plans altogether.

There has been a disquieting whiff of postcolonial satisfaction in the foreign reaction to rising India’s comeuppance. Yet a wholesale cancellation might just be the best thing for a nation.

Many observers will be tempted to see this failure as a fable of false pride ending in just humiliation. But apathy, not hubris, is India’s fatal flaw, and a bracing dose of shame may be exactly what is needed to shake its incredibly capable, but politically inert, middle class into action.

The risk is that this shame will inject new life into the old argument that India suffers from too much democracy — a favorite hobby horse of this bunch. No, India is not China. But the Games fiasco was not the result of parliamentary gridlock or popular protest. The farce was scripted by cronyism, corruption and a complete lack of accountability — all aided by the Indian politician’s complete disregard for the voter’s disgust. Unfortunately, the most shameful are the most shameless.

Amid the clamor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepped in (too late) to rap knuckles on Wednesday, and an extra staff of 1,000 cleaners, sourced from private contractors, was brought in to give the “filthy” Games Village a good scrub. And Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit dismissed fears that the event was shuddering toward collapse, pleading, “There is no reason to worry … . We should look at it as an opportunity. Please become positive.”

But however the Games turn out, Delhi has failed. It has failed to put on an effortless show of false glamor. It has failed to muzzle its muckraking press. It has failed to round up its poor and homeless and ship them into the countryside. And it has failed to persuade a skeptical public that costs skyrocketed to more than 10 times the original estimates [8] simply because the organizers are committed to making this the best games ever. (Forgive me if I find some reason for pride in all that shame.) Now the question is whether Delhi can learn from those failures what Beijing could not learn from its success.

The lesson is not that a poor country should spend all its money on welfare programs, or that developing countries should be content to remain as guests, not hosts, at international events, or that dissent must be silenced to protect national pride. Just as India’s costly space satellites have benefited farmers, the Commonwealth Games slush fund, if managed properly, might have created university dormitories, a functioning sewage system or housing for the poor.

The lesson is that it is futile to create islands of cleanliness and modernity for the rich, if they are to be surrounded by a sea of poverty, sickness and filth. Life will only get better for the wealthy when it gets better for the desperate poor. Until then, as long as there is no respect for labor, no one will take pride in his work, and the wage slaves will just be waiting for the chance to sneak in and take a dump on a rich man’s mattress.

Double points if he’s an elected official.

Tags
India Asia Sports Commonwealth Games 2010 Commonwealth Games Delhi Commonwealth Games India Commonwealth Games scandal Delhi 2010 India Corruption

What shining India, The self declared Global Economic Power, The self declared – Superpower can not build an Olympic village in 8 years.

More time should have given to the Banya may be another 20 years.

Common Wealth Games when people will come and witness the “Real India”. Poverty stricken, filthy, littered, disproportional wealth distribution, where over 50% of the population is starving.

Why is “everything made in India” a flop.

Because it is a dump.

It was reported in a UAE newspaper that if India does not resolve damning failures in preparation, construction, security, health and safety the games could well be canceled.

Please read as reported in Gulf News;

New Zealand team manager Dave Currie told radio network newstalkZB on Tuesday that New Delhi organisers “are in severe difficulties”.

“In the time frame that is left, unless there is tremendous effort and energy and problem-solving ability to get it done, it’s going to be extremely hard to get across the line,” he said.

Currie said New Zealand would consult with other countries before making a final decision on whether it can take part in the October 3-14 games.

“That’s not a decision that we’ll make (alone) but there are some realities,” he said. “If the village is not ready and athletes can’t come, obviously the implications of that are that it’s not going to happen.”

His fears were echoed by Australia’s chef de mission, retired marathon runner Steve Moneghetti, after he had talks with Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite, who had checked into the village.

Moneghetti told reporters in Melbourne that Indian organisers “have got two days to do what’s probably going to take about two weeks.”

“When I spoke to Perry on Monday he said there were some furnishings, some problems with the information technology that he was concerned about … but he didn’t seem that concerned about the overall condition of the village,” Moneghetti was quoted as saying. “It’s probably not up to western standards … but hopefully it will be suitable for the athletes.”

New Zealand, along with Canada, Scotland and Ireland, described the accommodation as “unlivable” and the 300-strong New Zealand contingent of athletes and officials had been allocated new quarters.

Fennell said advance parties from the international Commonwealth Games Associations had been impressed with the international zone and main dining area within the village, “however, the condition of the residential zone has shocked the majority of CGAs that are in Delhi.”

“Despite (the CGAs) attempts to work with the organising committee in a constructive manner since arriving on Sept. 15, significant operational matters remain unaddressed,” Fennell said in a statement. “The problems are arising because deadlines for the completion of the village have been consistently pushed out. Now, the high security around the site, while vital, is slowing progress and complicating solutions.”

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was hopeful games organisers would be able to remedy the outstanding issues but did not rule out a withdrawal from the event.

Key said it was “unlikely that New Zealand would make a call that other countries weren’t prepared to make.”

“The areas (of concern) aren’t insurmountable although there are real concerns about whether they can be achieved in the timeframe,” Key said.

“They’re really malfunctioning buildings and the like, so whether those things can be fixed up is what the New Zealand (officials) will look at.”

The buildup to the games has been plagued by problems with construction of venues and infrastructure falling well behind schedule, causing concern over the safety and quality of the buildings and speculation of corruption in the awarding of contracts and structural compliance certificates.

But the delays in construction have been overshadowed more recently by safety concerns, heightened on the weekend after two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle shot and wounded two tourists in Old Delhi.

Police patrols have been increased and a massive hunt for the gunmen launched. The two injured tourists were recovering from their injuries and were expected to leave the hospital later this week.

Reported in the Gulf News.

The Kashmiri oppression and occupation has to be central in this common wealth games. How can the Banya slaughter inniocent Kashmiris and then like promote itself as a world democracy and a shining example to the rest of the world.

I personally want India to fail and show their incompetency to the world and I want the world to focus on Kashmir during these Commonwealth games.

“India teri kali soorat”– “Yaak thu!” (Filthy face of India–Collective spit. This is a popular slogan of Kashmiris wanting liberation from Bharat and amalgamation with Pakistan) needs to be shown to the world. Written by Mr. Ansar Ul Haq. Edited by Rupee News.

The family, whose sons were born and raised in Bolton, claim that Haroon, a Junior Amateur Boxing Association champion last year, has been frozen out by the British Amateur Boxing Association, in spite of having earned his England vest as a junior.

Ironically, Amir Khan faced a similar situation in 2004, when boxing officials said he was too young, at 17, to go to the Olympic Games in Athens. Khan had won the world junior lightweight title in South Korea early in 2004, and the family threatened to offer his services to the Pakistan Olympic squad.
Khan was later selected for Great Britain, coming home with a silver medal and reaching the lightweight final against double-gold medallist Mario Kindelan of Cuba.

Shah Khan, father of the boxing brothers from Bolton, explained: “We’ve been over to Pakistan to their training camp, and Haroon has sparred with their guys, one at 56kg and one at 52kg. Their Cuban coach was very keen on getting him into the squad.

“Haroon would prefer to fight for England and his dream was to fight for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics. But if he can’t get a look in with England, what else can he do? There’s the podium squad and then the development squad just below it and he’s not even getting a look-in for the development squad.”

Khan Snr added: “Mick Jelley, Amir’s coach when he went to the Olympics, is 100 per cent behind what we are doing. We asked his advice, and he said if Team GB won’t give him a chance, then he’s lucky he’s got the option of fighting for Pakistan.”

Khan’s plan is to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October and the join the professional ranks. “I really wanted to box for Britain at the Olympics ever since Amir won silver in Athens. I looked at what he did and dreamt of going one better,” explained the 19-year-old who is in New York for his brother’s US debut against Brooklynite Paulie Malignaggi.

“But I’ve never had a look-in with the senior England squad, not even a letter. What used to happen was they would call me up a week before an international fixture and ask if I was available to box, but I knew it was only because someone had pulled out.”

Khan earned junior vests for England. He added: “Whatever happens, I couldn’t see myself fighting for Pakistan at the 2012 Olympics in London. That just wouldn’t feel right. If all goes well, I will turn pro after the Commonwealth Games.”

Haroon fights at 52kg, won the 2009 Junior ABA title, and has fought 76 amateur bouts, with 61 wins and 15 defeats.

The semi-final matches of the DLF Indian Premier League, to be held at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on April 21 and 22, have been shifted to Mumbai’s D.Y. Patil Stadium due to security concerns.

IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi said in a press release on Sunday: “While reluctant to relocate the semi-finals at such a short notice, yesterday’s [Saturday's] incidents have made it clear that the current environment in Bangalore prevents us from continuing with our original plans.”
Two explosive devices found

Bangalore Staff Reporter writes:

Two crude explosive devices were found on Sunday in the vicinity of the stadium.

The police defused the devices that had detonators. They did not have any timers. While one device was found wrapped in a plastic cover and placed behind an advertisement board in front of the main entrance of the stadium, the other was kept near a bus shelter.

Investigators believe Saturday’s bombings at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore were executed by an Indian Mujahideen cell led by Mohammad Zarar Siddi Bawa, police sources told The Hindu.

Karnataka-born Bawa—also known as ‘Yasin Bhatkal’—is allegedly a key figure in a series of urban bombings executed by the Indian Mujahideen between 2005 and 2008 that claimed hundreds of lives.

Bawa, police say, was the organisation’s key-bomb maker and his devices were used in the attacks.

Earlier this year, during investigations, he emerged as a key suspect in the bombing of the German Bakery in Pune. Police informants had identified the fair, slight Bawa, dressed in a loose-fitting blue shirt and a rucksack slung over his back, in closed-circuit footage recorded by a camera placed over the cashier’s counter at the German Bakery. Witnesses also identified Bawa from photographs shown to them by Pune investigators.

The police sources say there was credible intelligence that he was planning further attacks, but insist there was no information suggesting the M. Chinnaswamy stadium was to be targeted.

The timer-activated improvised explosive devices were similar in design to the devices used in Bangalore. “High humidity in Bangalore because of recent rains may have degraded the ammonium nitrate used to manufacture the bombs, lessening their lethality,” a senior police official told The Hindu. Similar problems had led the nine improvised explosive devices planted in Bangalore in July, 2008, to malfunction.

Bawa was allegedly recruited into the Indian Mujahideen by his childhood friends, Islamist ideologue Iqbal Shahbandri and his brother Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri. Karnataka Police sources say Bawa was a key figure in a meeting held in the summer of 2004 on the beachfront in Bhatkal, where key Indian Mujahideen operatives met for the first time to discuss their operational strategies.

Police in several States have sought Bawa ever since October, 2008, when he escaped a police raid on an Indian Mujahideen safe house near Chikmagalur. Police recovered laboratory equipment, precision tools and five complete improvised explosive devices during the raids.

For at least a year, it has been clear that the Indian Mujahideen has been rebuilding its networks in India.

Police say Hyderabadi Sheikh Abdul Khaja, who was arrested by the Indian authorities in January, had met with key leaders of the Indian Mujahideen in Karachi, including Bawa, the Shahbandri brothers, and gang-lord-turned-jihadist Amir Raza Khan.

Keywords: Indian Mujahideen, Bangalore attacks, IPL 2010

There are fears about the safety of the IPL as well as the safety of the Commonwealth Games. There have been several terror attacks in India, and the organizers of the Commonwealth Games, already jittery are getting a bit nervous.

India’s Olympic chief on Tuesday sought to allay security fears at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi saying the country was committed to providing a “safe and secure” environment.

Many are not convinced.

Some decisions will be made on the subject soon.

NEW DELHI: The authorities may have refrained from calling minor blasts in Bangalore a terror act, but the incident can well be a wake-up call ahead of the Delhi Commonwealth Games as it exposed chinks in the armour of the security agencies.

http://rupeenews.com/2010/02/10/indian-miracle-display-for-commonwealth-games/

http://pakistanledger.com/2009/03/25/terrorism-delhi-2010-commonwealth-games-in-jeopardy/

The low-intensity explosions were set off by devices with timers, pointing to an expertise that can be used to engineer mayhem on a bigger scale. In fact, in crowded settings, even low-intensity blasts can exact a disproportionate toll by triggering panic leading to stampede

That the packets carrying explosives went undetected in an area which is supposed to be thoroughly scanned, considering the known plan of terrorists to target Bangalore and sports venues across the country, has distressed the authorities.

The government is apprehensive of terrorists carrying out spectacular strikes and mass murder ahead of and during Commonwealth Games, in keeping with their plan to render India an “unsafe destination”.

The failure of Bangalore police to keep its vigil when it had to guard just one venue should naturally deepen worries about a situation such as the Commonwealth Games when events would be going on at different stadia across the Capital.

“How can police ignore such sanitization exercise, given the fact that the IPL matches have always been on terror radar? It seems no one had even been monitoring the CCTVs’ panel. Had police been alert, they could have detected the packets carrying explosive the moment it was planted there”, said a senior home ministry official.

Officials here feel that since Bangalore has been on terror radar for long, such lapse could well be avoided keeping constant intelligence inputs in mind.

Union home ministry, which has been in touch with the state police over the investigation and forensic analysis of the explosives, preferred not to comment over the incident at this point.

The Commonwealth Games are held every four years with the next Games taking place from 3-14 October 2010, in New Delhi, India.

Bharat (aka India) is putting on a show for the Commonwealth Games. The great abuse of children and women has to be taken into account. Why is the Secretariat of the Commonwealth not taking action against the human right abuses of people and kids in Bharat.

Please write to the Secretary of the Commonwealth Games and ask him to suspend/cancel the games, ’till Bharat ends the abuse of kids.

Nick Pink, Commonwealth Sports Adviser
Commonwealth Secretariat
Marlborough House, Pall Mall
London SW1Y5HX, UK
Email: n.pink@commonwealth.int

Bruce Kidd, Chair
University of Toronto
55 Harbord Street
Toronto
ON M5S 2W6, Canada
Tel: +1 416 978 7943
Email: bruce.kidd@utoronto.ca

Bring Your Child to Work Day: In New Delhi there are upwards of 100 construction projects underway in preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games scheduled to take place from Oct. 4 to 13. These projects -- ranging from several new stadiums to a new international airport terminal -- are drawing vast numbers of migrant workers from all over India to provide the extra labor needed. Contractors, already behind schedule, are taking advantage of lax labor laws and coercing their employees to bring their children to work alongside them, promising payments of bread and milk. Above an Indian girl carries a brick at a construction site in front of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Feb. 3.

All Work and No Play: When it comes to child labor laws, little headway has been made on enforcement. In fact, some, like the UNICEF-sponsored authors of "What Works for Working Children," have made the argument that child labor is better than the alternatives: no work at all or prostitution. Above, Indian children struggle to shovel rocks in front of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Jan. 30.

No Child Left Behind: Here, a young girl drags a rock-laden basket at a construction site in late January. Indian officials are expecting 6,000 athletes and 200,000 spectators to flood the city for the games. Planners have good reason to be concerned that the capital city will not be prepared to host the Commonwealth Games by the official October start date -- not a single venue, from the velodrome to the massive metro system expansion, has been completed -- except for a refurbished hockey stadium.

Pipe Dream: Struggling laborers with little recourse to improve their situation must rely on government intervention. This week, the High Court of Delhi began cracking down on the national government over alleged failures to provide legally mandated benefits to workers involved with the construction of venues related to the games. Here, an Indian woman seals drainage pipes with cement in New Delhi on Feb. 1.

When the Going Gets Tough: India is spending at least $2.26 billion to ready the New Delhi for the October games. At construction sites like the one above, laborers are making well below the standard minimum wage, and working children receive nothing but a single meal. Here, an Indian boy walks with his mother under the shadow of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium back to their temporary dwelling after having worked a full day on a drainage system on Feb. 3.

Out in the Cold: Many of these child laborers and their families have little respite from a long day's work, taking shelter in temporary tent-like structures that provide only minimal protection from the elements -- erected just outside the work site. One workers' group said: "They live, sleep, and ... eat where they work." Winter temperatures in New Delhi may not seem too chilly, rarely dipping below freezing, but the total lack of adequate shelter and sufficient clothing pose significant risks. Above, a woman is greeted by her family upon returning from work at one of the construction sites on Feb. 1.

The Cost of Beautification: Taking cues from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Indian government is determined to show a vibrant, clean, and modern face to the world. But the "sprucing up" comes at a clear human cost: Almost half of the city's homeless shelters have been destroyed in order to clean up the city and clear room for infrastructure, putting over 100,000 onto the streets in the middle of winter. The razing of slums has added to the number of homeless, and dozens have died from exposure to the cold, literally freezing to death. Above, a woman cooks dinner outside her makeshift home on Feb. 3.

Turning a Blind Eye: There are tens of millions (some say over 100 million) of child laborers in India -- the second-highest number in the world. The practice is officially banned, but violations are rarely investigated, and the pervasive use of child labor in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games has only exacerbated the problem. Here, three children rescued by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) wait at the Khajuri Khas police station in New Delhi on Nov. 4, 2009.

Walk the Line: A young girl performs tightrope-walking road shows, known as Mothari-ka-khel, for money on July 19, 2009 in Chennai, India. India's widespread poverty -- 800 million Indians live on less than $2 a day -- leaves many poor families with no other choice than to put their school-age children to work. But what will happen to these migrants and their families after the construction ebbs, the projects run dry, and the games end?

Source: Foreign Policy Magazine. Feb 10th, 2010