Commonwealth Games

The Closing Ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games is currently going on - bringing to an end two weeks of athletics (and school/work closings for many, though not for HRLN!). Much has been said about the mistakes India made in preparing for the Games - or rather, in their lack of preparation. Stories of collapsing roofs, broken bridges, unclean and unhygienic housing and bathrooms in the Athletes' Village, amongst other problems, led a number of tourists and supporters to cancel their plans to attend, and a fair number of athletes to withdraw from the Games.

In any case, the Games started last week with a huge dramatic (and seriously spectacular) Opening Ceremony. The Government declared the day a holiday for all of New Delhi, and everything was closed. Dances, outfits, and music from every corner of India was showcased, with brilliant lighting and huge fireworks in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. It was a triumph for a lot of the Committee members and those in the Government who had participated in the planning.

[Having trouble focusing right now because the song selection for the Closing Ceremony has been absolutely absurd. Jee Karda from Singh is King, I Gotta Feeling from Black Eyed Peas, We Will Rock You, Aahun Aahun from Love Aaj Kal, Koi Kahe Kehte Rahe from Dil Chahta Hai... Random.]

In any case: so yay for all the glam and glory of the Opening/Closing Ceremonies, and for the Delhi Metro, etc etc. The real burden of the CWG, though, was carried by (as often is the case) the poorest of the poor. Slums have been destroyed without compensation or rehabilitation for the slum-dwellers. And, as I learned more about in the High Court the other day, wages and benefits for construction workers were completely withheld, not to mention the poor working conditions (leading to grievous injuries and several deaths).

HRLN's case was about the lack of compensation for more than 70,000 construction workers. Lack of compensation in actual wages, as well as benefits, not to mention compensation when the workers were injured or killed due to the unsafe working conditions. Previous court orders had been obtained, ordering the construction companies and the Government to provide compensation for these workers, but the orders remained unfulfilled. The defendants claimed a variety of defenses: the statute providing for this compensation was too new (it's not - it's been in place since 1996), the workers did not register (16,000 registration applications are pending, with no movement on their applications), the workers themselves were not coming forward (many had gone back to their native places, seeing as the work was over)... the list goes on.

There was a very interesting dialogue in the court regarding the practical application of the statute - the judges seemed very invested in fulfilling the mandate of the previous court orders, but at the same were aware of the realities of having one company held responsible for all the problems (there were about 6 different contractors for the work, with dozens of subcontractors on each project). There was also a great moment when (after Colin and others continually used the number of 70,000), the other side challenged this statistic. It turned out that the actual Regional Labor Commission was sitting in the back of the court, and came forward to confirm that there were indeed 70,000 construction workers responsible for the all the CWG construction.

The case ended with the discovery that the subcontractors had been required to give a registration (of at least the number of their employees) to the Commission when they received their contracts, and so the subcontractors could be called in for the registration of their workers.

It remains to be seen whether the subcontractors will follow through, and if the construction workers will get what they should have from the beginning. In any case, it does make it a little hard to take in the grandeur of the Ceremonies, knowing what lives were destroyed in order to make it possible.