Homelessness in india (original) (raw)
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Indian Journal of Spatial Science EISSN: 2249 - 4316 ISSN: 2249 - 3921 journal homepage: www.indiansss.org, 2013
Personswhodo not live in buildings or census houses but live in the open on the road side, on pavements, in large sewage pipes, under flyovers, at places of worship, on railway platforms are referred to as 'homeless' (Census of India, 2001). They constitute a significant proportion of a city's population and are steadily growing in number creating a serious imbalance in the functions and morphology of a city. They lead a very poor life with in fact no possessions. Often, the homelessness is caused by multiple and interrelated physical, social, economic, political and environmental factors. On this backdrop, the present study endeavours to explore the socio-economic conditions of homeless population living in the central part of Kolkata.
Issues of Homeless People-A case of Surat City
2016
India is now being recognized in world for development in the fields, of Economic, Business, Science and Technology. However even the developed countries have failed to provide to ever citizen India obliviously is not an exception. The homeless people have to live on the roadsides, pavements, drainage pipes, under staircases or in the open Temple Mandap, Platforms, Bus Stand, and Railway Station and so on. Mostly they are harassed and abused by the people, police and government authorities etc. at the shelter place, is a very miserable condition for them. Besides homeless people are excluded from the mainstream development of the country. They are not having proper employment i.e. economic security, resulting begging, poor health, and illiteracy. The issues of women and children are also very serious in the situation of homelessness. In case of women, they are suffering more than male; sometimes they become victim of rape, harassment, sexual harassment, murder etc. at the shelter place. The youngster being worst hit, some of them being habitual of addicted of Alcohol, Drugs, Gutaka etc. sometimes they are doing crime also i.e. rape, murder, smuggling, robbery etc. homeless people are passing their day and nights on the foot path and other public place i.e. garden, bus stand, railway station, market etc. during the all seasons i.e. summer, monsoon and cold winter. During the monsoon they are suffering from lot of problems i.e. flood, mud water, unclean area etc. at that time very difficult to them for living on footpath. During the winter, cold wave grips them and at that time some of the persons died due to cold wave. According to times of India during the cold wave in the Gujarat three people died in the winter on Feb. 2012. Sometimes they are not proved themselves as an Indian because they haven"t any ID proofs i.e. voter card, pan card, license etc. During the election they can"t use their right of vote. Thus homeless people are facing several challenges in their life against the natural disaster and human made disaster in the society. In this concern the study tries to shed light on the issues of homeless people. Different types of homeless people are found in the society i.e. migrated, a person from marginalization group, bagger, mentally retarded, victim of serious health disease, victim of communal riots, poor, street children etc. homeless people are characterized by poverty and mostly they are much poorer and has a lower echelons (level) status in the society because it"s renders them insecure and vulnerable to threats and violence. Many homeless people are living with households at the footpath place and there are also many children and youth found as a homeless, among them number of such "throw-away" and "run away" from the family in the villages, behind it main responsible factor is related to family strife, resulting changes are find in the family structure. More of homeless People are living with physical and mental illness and they are over-represented in the homeless population. Moreover ethnic minorities and migrants are also represented in the homeless population. Its fact that majority of the homeless people run away from the rural villages in search of employment, so homeless population is much increasing in the society through them. According to United Nation minimum conditions for a person to be countable as homeless ;(Homelessness: from Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia) 1. The person is assumed not to own any other property that is habitable in or on 2. Their rent or mortgage are equal to or greater than 72% of their monthly income 3. Their source of income to pay rent is not stable or the amount of money available for food is not stable. The census of India uses the notion of house who are not living in "census house", the latter referring to a structure with roof, home the enumerators are instructed, "to take note of the possible places where the houseless population is likely to live such as on the roadside, pavements in home pipes, under staircase or in the open temple. Available statistics reflect the strength of homeless people in the state and nation. According to United Nations documents, there are about 100 million homeless persons in the world. The highest rates of homeless people in Western Europe are found in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom; whereas 4 and 12 per thousand of the population is estimated to be homeless. A much large number of people have little or no money with the population of India growing by lips and bounds, many more people are born in to a life of poverty in every year. In India, 1981 estimated 2,343,000 people were homeless while in 1991 18.5 million homeless people in India. As per 2001 census 1.94 million homeless people in India among them 1.16 million lived in villages and 0.77 million lived in cities and towns. In Delhi which was having 3.1 percent of the national level while Bihar and Tamilnadu having 1.6 percent, 7.3 percent respectively and 73.75 percent in Chennai. Surat had the highest number of homeless people in the state of Gujarat, whereas 23,000 of homeless people in 2010 while preliminary findings of the census 2011 indicate that this has risen to nearly 40000 and 10,000 homeless people in Ahmadabad in 2011
Homeless People in West Bengal: A District Level Study
Space and Culture, India, 2018
The phenomenon of homelessness has often been explained as an obvious result of rapid urbanisation along with the limited housing facility in the urban areas (the destination region), but undoubtedly, it is interlinked with multifaceted issues which have been deeply rooted in the socioeconomic and political set up of the rural areas and small towns (the source region). Rural-urban development disparity, rural-urban migration, poverty, intra-regional unequal human development and housing shortage are some of the factors that have intensified the problem of pavement dwelling in urban areas. According to the Census of India (2011), the state of West Bengal holds the 7th position among the states of India with 134040 homeless people. The development disparity between Kolkata and other parts of the state has resulted a definite district-wise spatial distributional pattern of homeless people with the greatest concentration in Kolkata city. The study attempts to probe into the spatio-temporal distribution of homeless population and strives to ascertain the instrumental factors of the phenomenon in a contextual framework with the help of available and acquired data and information. Simple statistical methods- location quotient, Z-score, bi-variate correlation, Sphereman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient and Student t test have been used for the analysis. The findings suggest that the less developed districts, as well as the states, surrounded the Kolkata act as the source region that has pushed the destitute community towards the city and compelled them to reside on the footpaths of the city without a roof.
Signposting invisibles: A study of the homeless population in India
Chinese Sociological Dialogue, 2018
The overarching goal of this article is to sensitize the insensitive governments, institutions , and civil societies for homeless population in social sphere. Routes into home-lessness are complex, multiple and interlinked. The complex triggers consist of biographical, structural and behavioural factors, when combined, increase people's vulnerability to homelessness. Despite the high economic growth and double digit GDP growth that gives opportunity to celebrate the country's achievement, the worsening condition of the homeless, underlaid by huge inequality, creates the huge contradiction for such celebrations. The problems and complexity associated with homelessness require several stages of prevention, intervention and system-based response for a solution. Thus, policy response requires the urgent need to move away from discussions on general welfare policies to context-specific policies; otherwise, the aspirations of sustainable development will be castles in the air.
An Analysis of Socio Economic Conditions of Homeless People’s in Madurai City, Tamil Nadu
Shanlax International Journal of Economics, 2019
Homeless people who not able to get and keep regular, safe and sound houses, or lack of fixed usual and sufficient night-time residence. The numbers of homeless peoples are increased due to the lack of adequate housing, unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood and old age etc. They are living in open areas like pavements, railway platforms, Hume pipes, under flyovers and open places near temples are described as homeless. In India, 1.77 million people are living homeless and 35 per cent of people are still earning $1 or less a day. The objectives of the study are 1) to know the socio-economic conditions of the homeless people in Madurai city, 2) to examine the factors affecting the homeless people in Madurai city and 3) To suggest viable strategies for improving their living conditions of homeless people. The study is entirely based on primary data. It deals with socio-economic conditions of homeless people, and factors influencing homelessness of homeless people in Madurai cit...
Homelessness: An Emerging Threat
Homelessness is a global burden. It is estimated that 100 million people are homeless worldwide according to United Nation estimates in the year of 2005. It is a major issue in developing nation such as India. The 2011 census counts there are 449,761 houseless households/ families and 17,73,040 homeless people in India -52.9 % in urban areas, and 47.1% in rural areas. Homelessnesss is multifactorial in origin. Some of common reasons are poverty, drug addiction, natural disaster and war, family problem and unemployment. Homeless people are very fragile, physically and mentally, they prone to victim of physical and social assault. We need to recognize homelessness as a major public health problem and attempt to target this group for special care in order to promote equity in health system as part of Sustainable Development Goals. The Government should undertake physical upgradation of informal settlements including different types of slum areas; unidentified, identified, recognised, notified and unauthorised housing accompanied by the providing access to roads and basic amenities like electricity, water supply and sanitation.
Urban homeless shelters in India: Miseries untold and promises unmet
Cities
An urban shelter is designed to offer refuge to homeless people and access to basic services like drinking water, sanitation and safety. This research paper aims to critically appraise condition of such shelters, vis-à-vis common services mandated to be provided at each shelter by the Supreme Court of India. A survey of shelters was conducted in four cities of Uttar Pradesh (viz., Allahabad, Varanasi, Lucknow and Agra) spanning a sample of 426 shelter-inmates. Analysis has been done in two stages: evaluation of common services on the basis of their significance as perceived by inhabitants, and assessment of significant services to check their availability and functionality. Factor analysis has clubbed nineteen such services under five factors (named as: entitlement to schemes, hygiene & recreation, cooking support system, ambience, and drinking water & conservancy). Findings reveal large scale unavailability of services and bring to light the appalling condition of shelters in the cities surveyed. This study may be useful in framing a focused policy for providing shelters to homeless people in urban areas by identifying services considered significant by inmates and ensuring availability of such services.
Human rights issues of urban homeless in India: a study of Chandigarh
International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 2020
The right to adequate housing is a human rights issue globally. The international law recognises the right to adequate housing both as an essential component of the right to an adequate standard of living and as a distinct right. The violation of this right leads to the violation of other indivisible human rights. Homelessness has become a major human right challenge for an emerging economy like India. According to the Census 2011, India has more than 1.77 million homeless people, of which 52.95% are located in urban areas. Independent estimates, however, place the total number of homeless persons in India at about 2.3 million. The present study has been carried out in Chandigarh, the first planned city of modern India. The effort has been made to delve into the lives of urban homeless and to analyse the problems faced by them in the context of human rights.