With 3 of worst six districts, Delhi is homelessness capital

NEW DELHI: Three Delhi districts are among India’s six worst in terms of the number of homeless people as a share of the general population.

While nearly three in every thousand Delhiites are homeless, they are not evenly distributed, a Hindustan Times analysis of the 2011 census reveals.

In Delhi’s Central district, more than 15 in every thousand residents are homeless. The figure is more than 14 for New Delhi, the city’s power district, and about nine for North district.

According to the census, there are around 1.8 million homeless people in India, more than the population of Mauritius.

With 47,076 people living on the streets, the Capital ranks 11th among states with homeless population. Uttar Pradesh tops the list.

But Delhi jumps to the fourth place when it comes to the number of homeless as a share of the city’s total population.

Most of the homeless are not native Delhiites but those from neighbouring states, which helps explain the concentration of homelessness in districts with major transport hubs.

“If you talk to these homeless people, and ask them their hometown, almost none of them are from Delhi itself. They are from smaller towns which are around the Capital, mainly from UP and Bihar,” said Irtiza Quraishi, president of Marham, an NGO that provides housing and job training to the homeless in Delhi. Young people come seeking work and money, “but they find it’s completely different from what they think, and they end up being homeless”, he said.

Homelessness is relatively low in other Delhi districts. East, South West, North West, and North East districts have fewer than two homeless people per thousand.

The government has set up 197 shelters in the city that are run by different NGOs. These are meant for 16,000 people, but crowding is a big problem, especially in the city’s harsh winter. This season, an additional 61 tents were set up to meet the rush.

The census likely undercounted homeless people in the country, and the number could be three times higher, said former police officer Amod Kanth, who runs the NGO Prayas. Prayas manages about 22 shelters in Delhi.

Delhi’s unofficial count, too, varies – from 50,000 to 250,000. A Supreme Court appointed panel estimated the city’s homeless population to be 246,000.

Whatever the number, those who find themselves in homeless shelters often sleep in cramped quarters. Advocate Sugriv Dubey on Tuesday filed a petition in the Delhi high court in which he argued that the government should be asked to provide separate shelters for males and females to protect girls from sexual violence. “My submission is that if the number of these places is not increased, and boys and girls are not separated, then what will happen? People will sleep on the footpath,” Dubey said.

In fact, many prefer streets to the shelters, where thefts and rapes are not uncommon, as reported by HT in its Roofless in Delhi series. “In the summer, they will die with the heat. In winter, they will die with the cold. So at least let them reside peacefully. Give them some space,” Dubey said.