So what happens next?

Today's post is from an article I read on London The Times Online.

Next year, the Commonwealth Games will be celebrated in Delhi, India. As any city in any part of the world would do, it's trying to give the best possible impression to the throngs of visitors it expects as well as the image many may perceive on the television.

In order to do that though, the local government must somehow make the marginalized population. the beggars of the street disappear. Like any nuisance or litter, it must be swept under the rug so that no one might be offended by the horrendous site. This task must be completed by October of 2010.

Some officials have suggested a biometric system to identify repeat offenders in order to lock them up or expelled them from the city. Habitual offenders can be jailed up to ten years. There are some that have actually started begging schools where children are taught how to beg more efficiently.

They would be sent to special homes in order that the city can make a good impression on the more than 100, 000 foreign visitors it expects to receive.

Some of the beggars are reported to be people with degrees and claim to make more than the average a person makes on a day. However, one third are believed to be children along with migrants from India's poorer regions.

These homes, experts believe are inadequate and there would be rampant corruption and child mistreatment.

How is it that cities wait until a big international even to focus on social problems and they only do it in a temporal way. If begging has been a spectacle in India as in many other cities in the world for a long time, why does it take something like this to open the eyes and say, we have to do something about this.

The way I see it, it is every city's responsibility to protect all its citizens, especially those who are the most at risk. When a city or government entity does something for other reasons than to actually help those in its perimeter, than what is saying in essence is you people, are a burden, an
embarrassment to our city and looking good in false appearance is better for us than to care for you.

I doubt these homes, as inefficient as they might be, will be there to help or try to help these marginalized segment of society once the plethora of people leave. What's going to happen to them? Will they be taken care of then? Or will the city government say, o. k. they're gone we can get back to business, us ignoring you and you begging and fending for yourselves.

Perhaps one of the requisites for cities to have a big tent even such as this one should be, to make sure its people are first taken care of. At least the revenues they are sure to get from the Commonwealth games should trickle down to every segment of society. Somehow though, I think the only thing these people will be left with will be a distant memory of what it felt like when they were the ugly face of Delhi that while foreign people went to and fro, they were relegated to live in obscurity and shame... It would be nice if cities and governments actually did something permanent to help those that are otherwise helpless.

© Rogelio Gómez Hernández.