Homelessness in India

Homelessness in general

Shelter is the basic human requirement that needs to be met on priority basis. Housing is an important source of shelter, comfort and social status; as "home" performs basic protective and symbolic functions.

Homelessness is defined as living in housing that is below the minimum standard or lacks secure tenure. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: living on the streets (primary homelessness); moving between temporary shelters, including houses of friends, family and emergency accommodation (secondary homelessness); living in private boarding houses without a private bathroom or security of tenure (tertiary homelessness).

Homelessness is more than ‘rooflessness’. A home provides roots, identity, and a sense of belonging and a place of emotional well-being.  Homelessness is about the loss of all of these. The two main causes of homelessness is poverty and failure of the housing supply system. The other causes are domestic violence, the erosion of family and social support, political, ethnic and social turmoil, natural disaster, physical and mental illness, the de-institutionalizing of the patients with mental problems and disability. Hence, homeless persons are heterogeneous in terms of their age-group, gender, livelihood, place of origin and the reasons for living in the street.

In India

Homelessness is a major issue in India. The total houseless population in India according to Census of India 2011 is 1.82 million. Since 1961 onwards till 1981 the number of houseless population has shown a rising trend.

Percentage share of homeless population among UTs/States in India, 2011

Challenges faced by homeless

One challenge the homeless face is the inaccessibility to shelters. Although shelters are available for the homeless in certain cities, many homeless people choose to not utilize them and live on the streets instead due to various different reasons. One reason is that homeless individuals who are affected by mobility issues cannot access them and are unsure about how shelters function. Another is that sometimes shelters are located in unreachable areas and have “camouflaged architecture and poor layouts of the interiors”. Shelters often lack funding and resources to make them more attractive for the homeless population. Shelters also demand a small fee per night, immediately rendering them inaccessible for many homeless. The homeless may view shelters as crowded spaces with poor sanitation where drug addicts and thieves may also take refuge. Furthermore, shelter officials, managers, and caretakers are not incentivized to keep the shelters clean and welcoming. Another challenge faced by the homeless is exposure to extreme weather in summer and winter.

Aides for the homeless

Non-Governmental Services

Indian NGOs have increased dramatically over the years for a number of reasons. A few of these reasons include: programs developed by governmental organizations often lack "sufficient financial means for implementation", lack of discourse around urban issues at Indian universities, and the gap between social classes in urban areas.

Government Initiatives

National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy 2007, which was last revised in 2007, advocates public-private partnership for providing affordable housing for all and specifically to the urban poor. The policy focuses on multiple stake-holders like private sector, cooperatives, industrial sector (for labour housing and services) and institutional sector (employee housing) to meet the housing needs. It was estimated that in 2006-07, the housing shortage in India was 24.7 million, of which 99 percent belonged to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Lower Income Groups (LIG). Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JN-NURM) has taken major policy initiative to meet the challenge by emphasizing on increased supply of land through, increased incentive for higher FSI, Transfer of Development Right (TDR), increase inflow of funds and reservation of 10-15 percent in every new public-private project or 20-25 per cent of FSI, whichever is higher, for EWS and LIG. States were asked to prepare 10years Perspective Plan for EWS and LIG. JNNURM has two sub-components to address housing needs of the urban poor, namely, BSUP (Basic Services to the Urban Poor), in 63 JNNURM Cities and IHSDP (Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme) in rest of the cities.

Conclusion

Homelessness in India is an economic and socio-political problem. Though in last one decade the number of houseless population has started to decline, the presence of a large number of slum population, those living in substandard dwellings and those ‘living rough’ on the pavements a source of constant worry.

Moreover, these homeless populations are subjected to multiple vulnerability like poverty, lack of economic opportunities and social discrimination. They are not faceless and do not confirm to the same socio-economic background. However, over the years the government and the development agencies have ignored this fact and treated them as monolith. Therefore it is necessary to tackle the problem of homelessness and inadequate housing of specific groups as per their socio-economic conditions and provide solutions that meet their requirements.

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_India

[3] https://thecsrjournal.in/csr-the-homeless-people-in-india/

[4] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Percentage-share-of-homeless-population-among-states-UTs-India-2011-Source-Primary_fig1_323661201

[5] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316628224_Homelessness_In_India