CWG Budget | Commonwealth Games Total Budget for New Delhi 2010

RECENTLY, the central government disclosed that its total spend on the
Delhi Commonwealth Games is likely to be Rs 11,494 crore. This number
is disconcerting for two reasons. One, because it is an
order-of-magnitude away from its original estimate of Rs 655 crore.
Two, because the real cost of the games will be much higher if we were
to include: Rs 16,560 crore additionally spent by Delhi government on
upgrading the capital's infrastructure — a new airport terminal, wider
roads, new flyovers, Metro rail extensions, and so on; Real cost of
labour — labourers got sub-minimum wages, worked in unsafe conditions,
and were housed in sub-human tenements;
The human cost of driving the poor out of streets and out of sight.
The term 'commonwealth' originally meant public welfare, things
that are for the greater good of society. Do the Commonwealth Games
pass this commonwealth test? Is this Rs 28,000-crore drain on public
funds for the greater common good?
Before I respond to the question, let me clarify my position on
the Games themselves. The desire to celebrate runs deep in our
collective psyche. The teachings of a spiritual master, the creation
of a nation, the birth of a child — celebrating each of them is
important because they are our cultural compass; they remind us of
things we value most. There are few things as uplifting as watching a
sportsperson push physical and mental limits to achieve the
incredible. The Commonwealth Games, like the Olympics, are a
celebration of the human spirit of excellence. Therefore, in itself,
the Games are a worthy endeavour.
However, given the thousands of crores being spent on the Delhi
Commonwealth Games, we need to ask if this is money spent wisely. As a
country, we are constantly forced to compromise on funds. For
instance, India needs more schools, and the existing schools need
better infrastructure and more teachers. This will require us to spend
6% of our GDP on education, but we manage just over half that figure.
Similarly, the country has very little sports infrastructure on the
ground. To encourage sports, our first step has to be to ensure
children get access to playgrounds, good equipment and quality
coaching. To not have this, and to instead spend on a grand sporting
spectacle sounds like we have got our priorities wrong.
Despite the wonderful economic strides of the past two decades,
the reality is that India is a poor country. A recent study by the
University of Oxford measured levels of education, health and living
standard in the world's poorest countries. This study shows that India
continues to be predominantly poor. In fact, there are more poor
people in eight Indian states than in the 26 poorest African countries
combined.
Delhi has amongst the lowest occurrences of poverty in India,
while at the other extreme, 81% of Bihar's population is poor. No
surprise then that many of the 100,000 labourers who worked for unfair
wages to prepare Delhi for the Commonwealth Games were from Bihar.
The capital already boasts of some of India's best infrastructure.
Instead of spending crores to widen Delhi's roads, should we not
prioritize building roads and schools in Bihar where none exist in the
first place? If we have Rs 500 crore to spare, should we use it to
build basic sports facilities in thousands of government schools, or
should we spend it all on renovating one stadium?
In real terms, such choices are not all that easy to make. For
instance, it is important for our cities to have great infrastructure,
and money spent on a metropolis like Delhi will in turn catalyse our
national economy. Our leaders have to constantly juggle and prioritize
among many equally deserving needs, and it is not as if they are
uninformed or wrongly intentioned. Over the last decade, the Indian
government has taken important strides in social welfare and inclusive
development. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan are but two examples.
However, it is not enough to have specific schemes such as the
NREGA. Rather, equity and inclusion considerations must underlie each
and every policy decision. Let me suggest that all public policy must
recognize that GDP growth is meaningless if it does not uplift the
most underprivileged of our country.
How can we forget that for Rs 28,000 crore we could have
established primary schools and health centres in tens of thousands of
villages? Can we ignore this splurge the next time a malnourished
child looks us in the eye?