in New Delhi, “it’s difficult to live” in this overcrowded megalopolis

In western New Delhi, on a wasteland wedged between the railway line and a main avenue, more than ten thousand people live precariously in small huts made of wood and tarpaulins. They have come in recent years from rural eastern India to work.

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These internal migrants constitute the essential workforce of a city in full explosion. The megalopolis of New Delhi extends over 80 km from end to end. Thirty two million people live there today si.e. a tripling of the population in 30 years.

The most impressive image of this population explosion is along the highways entering the city: there, in the suburbs, dozens and dozens of 20 or 30-storey towers are being built, on the old fields of wheat and mustard, in order to welcome these millions of new residents. Because India is in the midst of a rural exodus – more than half of its population still lives in the countryside or on the outskirts of cities, but these inhabitants are rapidly abandoning agriculture, which is too uncertain and unprofitable, and migrating to the city. There, they work as day laborers, for very low wages, and sometimes cannot afford New Delhi’s rents.

This is the case of Sadam Hussein, who earns five euros a day as a handler in the fruit market. He settled with his family in the shanty town of Shakur Basti. “Here I can work 24 days a month whereas in my region there is no regular work, he said. It’s hard to live here because there’s no water or electricity, but at least we have some income.”

India, which has around 1.3 billion inhabitants today, should become the most populous country in the world in a few years, as we pass, on Tuesday November 15, the bar of eight billion human beings on Earth. This phenomenal population growth is sometimes difficult to manage. Thus, many workers cannot find affordable housing. So they squat, which is risky. “Last month the municipality sent the bulldozers. They destroyed our house and so we have to rebuild everything,” recount Nourjihane.

The government has launched a new rental assistance plan for these populations. Thirty thousand housing has been identified in New Delhi, but none has yet been made available. We do not yet know what rent will be asked, and therefore, if the poorest will have the means to access it.