According to one report, India has a total homeless population of 78 million (based on the 2001 census). Most of them are concentrated in the cities of Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi. How do these people survive the cold nights out on the streets?
How do people become homeless? In any big city there is always a severe crisis of housing. Many people live in slums that are built on illegal land. Every time the city municipality demolishes a slum, thousands of people become homeless. In Delhi alone, over 1 lakh slums have been demolished since 2000. In the Yamuna Pushta area, near ITO, 50,000 people have lost their homes. Of them, only 30,000 have been rehabilitated.
Not surprisingly, the maximum number of homeless people includes street children, abandoned women and migrant labourers.
It’s not that the government is unaware of the magnitude of the problem. The MCD runs 12 night shelters, one exclusively for women. The total capacity of these shelters is 2,500. They follow a system of ‘pay and use’: each person has to pay Rs 6 for 12 hours. In return, they are given blankets, mats and woollen clothing.
Yet the occupancy in these night shelters is low because of lack of basic facilities like toilets, clean blankets and clothes, and lack of safety. MCD officials admit that they do not have the infrastructure to cater to the needs of so many homeless people.
ALL PHOTOs AND VIDEOs PROVIDED BY F.M.B
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