With 3 of worst six districts, Delhi is homelessness capital

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.

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