New Delhi: Three weeks ago, the G-20 summit was under way in Delhi. Across town, the city was spruced up with colorful walls, posters of Narendra Modi and fountains on the streets. But for Delhi’s poor, ‘beautifying’ the city meant the destruction of or drawing a veil over their households.Some slums were demolished to prevent the foreign delegates from seeing Delhi’s poor while others were covered with green cloth curtains. The Coolie Camp, a slum of around 200 households in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar, was covered up with curtains.On September 8, 9 and 10, residents of the camp faced several restrictions. Bharat, a student and who lives in the camp, told The Wire that those three days reminded him of the COVID lockdown era.He said that the main road outside the camp was closed and his father’s shop, along with other grocery stores, had to shut down.“There was police presence outside the camp, so we could not go out,” Bharat said. “If we went out, we faced the wrath of the police. We could not go out for three days, but now the situation is normal.”There are six-seven grocery stores in the Coolie Camp area along with vegetable vendors, scrap shops and auto repair shops — all were forced to close during the G20 summit. Sukumar, a scrap dealer, said he faced significant financial difficulties as a result. He resides in the slum with his mother, father, four children and his wife. Sukumar (left), a scrap dealer in the Coolie Camp, fills a bag with plastic bottles. Photo: Yasmeen Saadi“We have never had such a restriction imposed on us before,” Sukumar said. “My family and I are completely dependent on scrap dealing. In three days, I lost nearly Rs 2,000.”Nagendra Prasad, who supplies groceries to the stores in Cooloe Camp said he lost between Rs 3,000-4,000 during the three-day restrictions. Prasad said other than during the pandemic, he has not faced this kind of financial loss in 14 years of working.“Never before has Coolie Camp been covered with curtains like this,” Prasad. “I had to stop my work because entry was forbidden in the Coolie Camp area.”Grocery supplier Nagendra Prasad stands next to his cart of groceries. Photo: Yasmeen SaadiOutside the Coolie Camp, street vendors also faced financial losses.Across the street from the slum settlement, vendors sell tomatoes, onions and other vegetables. Because residents of the Coolie Camp were unable to leave the colony, vendors did not have customers and were forced to shut down for the summit. Shaqeel, a tomato vendor, said he lost over Rs 2,000 that weekend. Shaqeel, a tomato vendor, sells vegetables across the road from the Coolie Camp. He had to stop work for three days during the G20 summit. Photo: Yasmeen Saadi“I have been living in the Coolie Camp for the last six-seven years, and I set up my vegetable stall nearby,” Shaqeel said. “I do this work from 6 pm to 1 am. But when the G20 summit was going on, I couldn’t step out of the house, and my work stopped completely. In those three days, I had to face financial loss.”Some residents felt the green curtains and restrictions were necessary. Because slums like the Coolie Camp are not legally developed and are considered encroachments by the government, demolition drives have uprooted thousands of families in the past year.Fearing this type of demolition, Parveen, an older woman in the camp, said she felt more secure because of the green curtains. Since the settlement was hidden, Parveen said she felt a sense of security that their homes would not be brought down.Now, torn up curtains lay at the foot of the Coolie Camp – among rocks and trash bags, as residents returned to their lives.