-Ria Nisar
In wealthy and posh cities, residents can name several high-end material items as their most prized assets. Some might have a trendy fitted kitchen and others might have the latest innovation in technology as their new arm-candy. But, when the sun stops glistening off the chrome windows of their extravagant cars, at that moment the street lights are illuminated; that lamp serves as a source of light to many people living on the streets. These street dwellers can only call a half torn blanket, a rusty stove, old clothes stripped of their colour & print, their own. They live in a house of cards that can be blown away by the slightest breeze.
'Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.' – Wallace Stegner. Homelessness is an issue that plagues any country. But, in this cruel world, people are desensitised to the issue. By ignoring the reality of the homeless, people are refusing to acknowledge their existence. Swiping this monstrous issue under the rug, society hopes that someone else will come along the way to shoulder the responsibility of helping them. But, by suppressing empathy, people are only causing more problems. What is economic growth when we have people present in our community sleeping on footpaths in undesirable weather conditions battling the woeful ignorance of people? There is something sinister about a society that celebrates economic growth without reducing human suffering.
There are more than 1.8 million homeless people in India. About 0.15% of the population. Over half of this population lives in urban areas.
Causes and the condition of the homeless
Many factors contribute to homelessness. Wealth inequality is prevalent like a virus in our country. The rich are becoming richer and the poor, poorer. Poverty contributes directly to homelessness. The poor have to choose between necessities and housing, which takes up a large part of their income. The increased migration has caught policymakers off guard over the years, as has the rush of property investors. That, coupled with insufficient housing regulations and a lack of enforcement, has all contributed to the homeless problem.
Unemployment is also a major reason. With the industrial revolution, a large chunk of mundane and routine human work has been replaced by heavy-duty machinery rendering unskilled labourers without a job. Since the per capita income is low, education is not accessible for the poor and thus they are not equipped with the resources required in the modern workplace. Other reasons for homelessness include people struggling with a mental and physical disability, substance abuse, desertion of unmarried pregnant women, victims of domestic violence and girl child.
The conditions which the homeless people go through is pitiable. When it comes to homelessness, an uncommon topic at the dinner table, it is uncommon to witness public displays of compassion and acceptance towards people who are impoverished and homeless. People tend to change their trajectory when approaching a homeless person from a distance and they are more likely to be robbed, berated and beaten than the general population since they lack the necessary resources to fend for themselves. People go
Many women are kidnapped, raped and verbal abuse occurs constantly for them. Treated as outcasts, they are denied access to clean drinking water or washrooms. Children grow up without proper education and some are severely malnourished. Pervasive discrimination experienced by people who are homeless, particularly discrimination based on access to accommodation and goods and services, contributes to the high rates of poor health.
Shelter homes - a solution to this problem?
In the year 2012, the honourable Supreme Court passed an order that, across all Indian cities, there should be at least one shelter for the homeless people built for every 1,00,000 people of that concerned city. In 2013, the Central Government finally implemented the National Urban Livelihood Mission, which established guidelines for states for constructing and running the shelters. When these shelter homes were erected, a structure of cement was in place with no care and attention provided to how it would be run, the problem it was trying to solve and facilities it should have to provide respite to the homeless. When field activists go through the city to get an estimate of the homeless population, a gross miscalculation always occurs. There aren’t enough beds available in shelters to home the homeless. They have to resort to taking shelter on the pavements, railway stations, unused hollow pipes to lull themselves into a false sense of security.
Shelter homes are also absent of basic sanitation and do not provide food to the starving people. They are not trained to house people with disabilities or people who are battling an illness or addiction and need constant care. If they are in a remote and secluded location, people who earn a meagre amount of wage won't go there since they’ll deplete all their money on travelling. In New Delhi, a few homeless people were camping near a government hospital since they had to go there daily for treatment and could not afford to travel to shelters each day. Though shelter homes have been somewhat successful in providing a roof over the homeless, it’s just a short term solution. The country is in dire need of medium and long term solutions to contain the issue. If there are long-term alternatives to homelessness, it would be less of a problem. Homelessness is characterised by instability, inability to find permanent residency, and a lack of choice.
First, the creation of affordable housing is a requirement. Since many of the shelters provided are only temporary and do the bare minimum in attempting to reduce homelessness, providing a more permanent housing solution for homeless families with affordable rent would assist in the transition out of homelessness. Because temporary solutions lead to overpopulation and eventually disorganisation, a permanent residence for homeless families would better address these issues by providing a place of security for the homeless until they can recover and obtain a stable job. An effort to house the like-minded population can also be done. Single mothers can be grouped into one block to give them a feeling of togetherness and people dealing with deteriorating mental health can be grouped so that the necessary resources can aid them. The right to adequate housing is about the security of tenure, affordability, access to services and cultural adequacy. It is about protection from forced eviction and displacement, fighting homelessness, poverty and exclusion. Moving ahead, education for the street children. For the older population, stable jobs should be created and rescue vans that are deployed to gather the homeless to transport them in shelters should be operational to transport them to a highly funded program where they are taught life skills. Only 3% of the homeless people have identity cards. They should be issued proper forms of identification so they can avail the benefit of schemes implemented by the Government for the poor.
Berlin’s state government is using more of its own and EU funds to combat homelessness, keeping a closer legal eye on evictions and lowering the bar to get people into housing. They are talking about "housing first," a concept developed in the United States and experimented with within Germany that aims to get people into their own homes with no strings attached. That flips the script on other programs, which require homeless people to first meet certain requirements, such as dealing with addiction, before they get the chance to receive a place to live.
NGO’s championing for the cause
Sampark Sathi Foundation is heavily invested in helping the homeless. We are bridging the gap between those who need shelter and sourcing adequate shelter homes for them. We aim to dismantle the generational bias of homelessness through educational awareness and restore the homeless into functioning and contributing members of society. Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan builds more shelters for the homeless in Delhi during the winter times. It does so in collaboration with the Delhi Government and the shelter homes are supervised by community workers. Based in Chennai, The Banyan provides care for the homeless with mental health issues in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra. The services include hospital-based care, housing in rural and urban neighbourhoods and community and clinic-based mental health solutions.
A lot of people think that homeless people don’t want to get off the streets. That’s not true. Their case is like a lost appetite. No desire, no energy and no purpose other than an unaccountable inner lassitude to deal with. The emotional smoke that accompanies their condition can make one’s vision translucent. Altering identities, they constantly trace the fragile line between hoping for a better tomorrow and succumbing to their ill fate.
Their issue is solvable if the society and government deem it so.
#samparksathi #samparksathifoundation #raiseaconcern #shelterhome #app
#home #delhi #india #homeless #homelessness
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