India’s four- to 500-year-old city and capital have experienced massive population growth that has made it difficult for the government to control and accommodate them.
The narrow old city of Delhi has an area of 932 square kilometers and a population of 1.1 million seven thousand 835.
Old Delhi is congested and usually overcrowded as it has important wholesale markets. As the day ends, these busy streets are taken over by homeless laborers and rickshaw pullers, and at night these streets become their shelters, sleeping on the streets in makeshift tents.
One can usually find homeless people living on the roadsides, some have spent their entire lives on the streets.
According to the Indian Census 2011, homeless people are most vulnerable due to lack of money and no documentation to help them access food, health, water, sanitation, shelter and livelihood support measures. have gone
A changing climate can prove fatal for the homeless and marginalized and the government needs to provide maximum support to them.
Providing only temporary shelter is an inadequate solution. The government has ‘failed’ to control and help the homeless as the population continues to grow and rising prices make people unable to cope with inflation, leading to poverty. . Therefore, they lose their homes and come to the streets.
The city is about four to 500 years old and by this time Old Delhi had become the most populous place and the administration here had completely ‘failed’.
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Muhammad Sadiq, a councilor from Old Delhi, told Independent Urdu, “There are many problems in the area like the streets of Chandni Chowk which are favored by poor people, we have also worked for them, like we have introduced night shelters.” are so that people can sleep there but the area is densely populated and these are not shelters. It is enough for poor people and they don’t get better treatment.’
‘Entering the inactive gate of the shelter in the area smells of rotting blankets, rat droppings and wood smoke.’
These night shelters are mainly occupied by drug addicts and alcoholics, which makes it difficult for women to stay in these shelters.
Marufa, who lives on the side of the road with her three children, says that the authorities opened a shelter for the homeless, but it is of no use because these places are mostly occupied by drunkards and drug addicts. Those who genuinely want help are not accommodated.’
