Some ray of hope for the homeless

Just a few months back horrific pictures of two men – gnawed away by rats, were all over the news.

They were homeless people and were sleeping on pavements. The pictures served to highlight the alarming fact of the increasing number of people without a roof over their head, in the national capital.

But, who are these homeless people? While many are migrants from economically weak states like UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, there is a factor other than migration that further aggravates the situation of homelessness in Delhi – the State’s recent policies on land use and urban space.

Demolition of slums without rehabilitation measures has created a vast section of homeless population.

According to Centre for Holistic Development (CHD), an NGO working on homeless people, the number of unidentified bodies found between September 1, 2013 to January 23, 2014 were 1,113 – they were all homeless.

And if reports are to be believed, the state government is all set to launch a citywide survey of the Capital’s homeless population.

The exercise will culminate in an action plan which will provide a need-based access to this marginalised category of people. 

Sunil Kumar Aledia from CHD, said, “There are other factors too which is leading to the increasing number of homeless people in the City other than slum demolition.

Unemployment in other states, domestic violence, gender issue, natural calamity,
etc are other factors leading to this.”

“When there is a marriage or any social gathering, we look for cheaper labour. When there is any construction activity happening we look for raj mistri. Who are these people then?

On the one hand we want their services, but on the other hand, we are unable to provide them shelter. It is basically a numbers game.

The Government never comes out with the correct number of the homeless people in the City.

During the 2011 survey we found that there are a minimum 1.48 lakh homeless in the City. We have also requested the Lieutenant Governor, Najeeb Jung to involve us in this process,” Sunil said.

Homeless people are non-skilled, uneducated population that make their living working at construction sites, collecting garbage, plying cycle rickshaws, selling newspapers, magazines, flowers and other goods at traffic signals.

Since they are homeless they have no voting rights and hence no scope of development. They do not have access to even the most basic of services and are largely exploited.

Metrolife spoke to a few homeless people in the City to find out the reasons for their migration.

Raj Kumar* who has come from Agra and has been living in Delhi for the past 35 years, said, “I had come to this City with some dreams. Paisa kamaunga, ghumunga...but kahaani thodi lambi ho gayi. Right now I am staying at the Kashmere Gate night shelter and there are hardly any facilities.

There are three coolers, which don’t work. The bathrooms are also not maintained.”

Currently, Delhi has 200 night shelters, out of them 84 are permanent and rest are porta-cabins.

Another homeless Seema Singh* living in the open near Hanuman Mandir in Connaught Place, said, “I was married when I was 13 and had my first child when I was just a 15-year-old. I don’t have my parents and my husband also passed away. After he passed away, my in-laws tortured, took my sons and forced me to leave home. Since then I am homeless. My sons live in one of the shelter homes. I wanted to study and wanted to become a nurse, which could not happen. Now, I just want to do anything to earn a decent living.Neha Das