Footpaths home for homeless

The city does not have enough shelters for them

Despite night shelters in the city, homeless prefer to sleep and build temporary homes on Delhi's footpaths.

“Why? Because night shelters do not have sufficient space to accommodate everybody. Many shelters do not even have basic facilities,” said Raghu, who left Bihar 10 years ago in this hope that he will earn big in his dream city.

“But unemployment led to drug addiction and now I sleep on this footpath every night,” he said. Raghu’s home is a pavement in Nizamuddin area.

People sleeping on pavements even 64 years after Independence is a matter of concern, the Supreme Court had said in January while asking the states to comply with its order to provide roofs for the homeless. But activists say not much has been done even after the court’s direction.

Like Raghu there are several people who migrate to Delhi in the hope of better employment opportunities but fail to get decent jobs. They begin working at construction sites and roadside eateries with no shelter.

“These night shelters are located in areas which are far away from my workplace and I cannot bear the expense of travelling every day. So I sleep on the footpath. I am abused daily by pedestrians, but what can I do,” asked Anand.

He recently called his family too to the city. Anand's family is living on the footpath near Govindpuri Metro station along with other families who have build temporary shelters.

These families are involved in street vending at traffic lights and in markets, or are ragpickers, and live in open spaces like under bridges, flyovers and pavements.

Prasanta Kumar Dash, Delhi programme manager for Save the Children said: “Many of the homeless belong to the distress migration group. They take up any work that can gives them some money to feed themselves and the family.

Mostly such families prefer to live near their place of work as they do not have enough money to pay high rents which range from Rs 1,000-1,500 per month on a sharing basis with 2-3 persons.”

According to Delhi Development Authority, at least one per cent of the capital's more than 16 million population is homeless. This means that no less than 1.6 lakh people are living on Delhi’s streets. According to estimates by a civil rights group, shelters in the city can only house a maximum of 9,000 people every night.

Activists claim that Delhi does not have night shelters which are operational throughout the year.

“It is not practical for a mother and child to live in one shelter and the father in another shelter,” said  Amod Kanth, founder of Prayas NGO. 

Kanth said sometimes officials conduct evacuation drives during Republic Day and Independence Day to remove the homeless from Delhi’s streets, but they do not relocate them.

“And when relocated they always try to come back. We need a rehabilitation programme to relocate the homeless,” he added.