Socio Research & Reform Foundation

As per a study titled ‘Homeless Survey-2010’ undertaken by UNDP, the official estimate of number of homeless people living without any shade or shelter in Delhi stands at 55,955. Unique Identification Authority of India has also accepted the survey for giving Aadhar numbers to the homeless.

Based on this report, Govt. plans to formulate its policies for providing shelter and possibly skills to such persons for earning their livelihood. So far govt facilities cover only 12,000 homeless people. Further, the condition of these shelters was not good too, as they had been very susceptible to incidents of fire. Moreover they are overcrowded and have very bad living conditions.

However several NGOs have disputed the figures put out by the study. They say the study was undertaken during 2010, when a large number of homeless were driven out of the city on account of Common Wealth Games. For example, Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan, which runs a number of homeless shelters in the city and IGSSS, state that the study has not covered many lanes and bylanes, where a number of such persons can be found. IGSSS had undertaken a survey in 2008 and they counted more than 88,000 people. They also insist that for every person counted they would have missed one person, as they could not go to all the bye-lanes of the city. They insist in all probability the Homeless in Delhi would be in the region of 150,000. Their argument seems to have some logic, that it is not possible for any agency to undertake a 100% headcount of population in such a large and diversified city.

In a recent order Supreme Court has directed all the states, particularly the northern states, which have extreme weather conditions to take action on priority basis in creating Night Shelters for such persons. Quoting Article 21 which dels with fundamental right of life and liberty, SC stated that ‘right to shelter’ is also covered by Right to Life and that it is the duty of the Govt ‘to preserve and protect’ the lives of homeless and destitute. It asked that Delhi Govt should provide at least around 160 night shelters.

Slums are part and parcel of most cities. In fact in India slums cover 30-50% of the population. Different governments have tried to solve the problem of slums in their own ways, for example, Madhya Pradesh started with grant of tenure or ‘’patta’’, hoping that entitlement to ‘title’ would give access to essential services. Similarly, the UP government has declared allotting of free houses to BPL families and have declared that the scheme would allot homes in 60 different towns and cities of UP. Problem is that most schemes, however, have seldom crossed the realm of political rhetoric. Funds are too meagre and the numbers who benefit are always far too small than needed and hence really not replicable.

While different governments have been trying to tackle the problem of slums, but, in spite of all the efforts, the actual problem still persists. Perhaps a deeper look at the problem will help us understand the genesis of problem and then only think of solutions, which are preventive rather than curative.

• Aspirations of rural dwellers have increased hugely and due to lack of opportunities, a large number of them move to cities,
• Poor city administration, which does not plan for large influx of persons and how to manage them (recent decision by Supreme Court which has ordered Delhi Administration to construct sufficient number of dormitories, night shelters to accommodate homeless) creates its own problem of scarcity of accommodation and facilities, which gets further accentuated when political patronage allows regularization of unauthorized colonies.
• While administration frequently announce schemes to tackle problem of slums, however with too meagre funds to match the problem and lack of proper managerial skills, often the schemes remain on paper with hardly any impact on the ground.

Bollywood has contributed in a big way to Mumbai’s legendary symbol of slums. However the Mumbai slums also constitute a real problem, as more than half of the population (52.5% to be precise) lives in slums. Mumbai has tried to involve the private sector. Real estate developers would clear the slums, give free homes to slum dwellers and get incentives in terms of higher FSI so as to recoup expenditure, and make a profit too. As this scheme showed fruitful results, soon it might be replicated in various other cities and states, and might one day become a national policy too!!!

While slum-dwellers contribute majorly to the urban productivity (services being provided at low cost) and the city economy they continue to be deprived and exploited lot and our cities continue to be pictures of stark contrasts.

-based on article by Professor PSN Rao of SPA, New Delhi