Delhi's Shopkeepers and their Fight

44,000 shopkeepers in Delhi live in fear. Their shops will be forcibly shut down by the government. Why?

Because all these shops are unauthorised...and have mushroomed over the past 5 decades in areas strictly meant for residential use. Many of them bribed corrupt municipal officials...some were by-products of Delhi's unplanned growth.

Now, India's supreme court has ordered government agencies to start the process of forcibly closing these shops down. The process will start from today.
The shopkeepers are not taking things calmly. They say they will fight anyone who comes to close their shops.
" I have three children and my shop is the only source of livelihood for me. If they shut my shop how will I send them to school, how will i feed them. I will fight anyone who comes here to close my shops...I will fight with all I have. Fight to death if I have to for the sake of my family." Lalit Goyal a shopkeeper in Vikas Marg told me.

It is very difficult to find real activists in Delhi. But this crisis has made activists out of ordinary shopkeepers.

They may hold flags of political parties...but they have no faith in them. In their hearts they know their flags are the black flags of protest. Politicians after all are there to get votes. Not to feed their children or pay their school fees.

So when they called for a shut down in Delhi on Tuesday...the government responded with unprecedented security.
There were policemen everywhere in the sensitive area.

The protests Tuesday were largely peaceful...but police fear protests could turn more violent in the days to come.

(Photo : Rajesh Sundaram)