Delhi's Homeless

We had a visit organised for tonight to one of the homeless shelters run by AAA, an Action Aid funded project. It was a little different to a Friday night back home.

In two cars with my group of 14 volunteers, we dodged the Delhi traffic then ground to a halt. We were bemoaning the fact the visit had been organised on a Friday when presumably traffic is worse. I’m not actually sure it makes a difference what day it is but the traffic did seem worse. We spent an hour inching forward and passing time by discussing the difference in the political structures of the UK, USA, Kenya, Canada and Ireland. As we approached Old Delhi it was apparent what had caused the delay. A melee of goats and their owners were struggling in the space where cars should have been, reducing the number of lanes from three to one. Translated this is space for six cars abreast which had been reduced to space for one car and perhaps a rickshaw. Our taxi driver explained the chaos. The next day was Eid al-Adha, a Muslim festival celebrating the prophet Abraham by sacrificing a goat. Our companions on the road were all going to die tomorrow.

We finally arrived and with dead legs and grumbling stomachs, any moaning ceased as we entered the shelter. It was hard to make out the entrance in the chaos of Old Delhi. We went through a door between the market stalls and cows. Inside was a long corridor with huge rooms leading off into masses of people covered in blankets on metal cots or lying on the floor. We were lead by P and S, two incredibly passionate and dedicated men, to the children’s room at the back. We went through the room one-by-one to a space at the back a room for a talk on the centre. As we passed the room full of 30 boys aged 10 – 13 years old, they shouted ‘Namaste!’ at us. I was astounded at the work done by the volunteers at the centre and the initiatives that have helped the people that shelter here. With 150,000 homeless in Delhi the managers of the shelters and the volunteers work hard. This figure does not include those that live in semi-permanent shacks and structures that aren’t fit for humans to live in.

S seemed to be drained and he mentioned that it was a 24/7 job campaigning for the rights of the homeless in Delhi and trying to keep the shelters open. AAA has a few shelters open around the city but does not cater for women or girls due to one of the shelters being shut down. That leaves an estimated 10,000 homeless females on the streets.

There are many projects at AAA, two of which belied a shocking fact. Firstly, AAA runs a ‘beggar’s court’ where homeless people put in prison can have access to a lawyer and time away from the jail. Secondly, there is a scheme where people can register and get ID cards enabling them to have access to banks, other services and a proof of their ID. The reason for these projects is the Police can ‘push’ on people without ID. They can also arrest anyone seen to be begging or even if they look unwashed, unkempt and homeless. This brings me to the shocking fact: someone may then be put in jail for three years just for being homeless.

Rather than resolve the issue of the homeless, this is a way of rounding people up and sticking them in jail away from public sight. The government however, do seem to be recognising that there is such a thing as ‘homelessness’ which they haven’t in the past. No doubt the issue will have to be addressed. It is one that hopefully will be increasingly more important with the run up to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October 2010.

YouTube clip online now.