Delhi's homeless get a secure future

By Madhu Gurung

This article was first published on www.infochangeindia.org.              

The story of Nirmal Kumar Dega is one of despair and very little hope. Lying prone under the lone fan in a huge room at Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan (AAA), a rights-based organisation funded by ActionAid that runs shelters for the homeless in Delhi, Dega’s fatigue is evident.

Dega was 14 when he ran away, with friends, from his home in Bikaner, Rajasthan, carrying his father’s briefcase containing Rs 20,000. He wanted to see Delhi and all the exciting places that had been described to him. But at Kanpur his friends deserted him when he was fast asleep, absconding with his briefcase.

The train got him to Delhi.

Penniless, frightened and with nowhere to go, Dega camped out on the city’s pavements. Hunger drove him to find work in a dhaba, where he scrubbed huge utensils from morning until night, for two meals and a paltry sum of money.

People like Dega make up 150,000 of the homeless who live the unmapped, invisible, brittle lives of the disempowered. As forgotten people they cling fiercely to life in the callous city.

Most vulnerable

“The homeless have a right to shelter, right to life, right to livelihood. The State is accountable to everyone. Those who migrate from the villages are already in a very fragile condition. Living on the streets only leaves them more vulnerable to disease and abuse,” says Paramjeet Kaur, director of AAA.

Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan was set up eight years ago with the aim of ensuring that the poor get their most basic human rights. Today, it runs permanent shelters for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in Sadar, Pahargunj, Purani Dilli, Chandni Chowk, Jhandewalan and Nandnagri, accommodating roughly 800 people throughout the year.

Paramjeet admits that they can never cover all the homeless people in the city. “Not everyone can afford to pay Rs 6 as daily charges of living in the shelter,” says Dev Kumar, supervisor at the Fatehpuri shelter near Purani Dilli railway station, he says.

“At present all the shelters are for men only; the government closed down the only shelter at Yamuna Pushta for women as the place is wanted as a warehouse for the civic centre that is being built for the 2010 Commonwealth Games”, he says.

The AAA team has divided Delhi into five zones. Every month they hold five panchayats where the homeless congregate to talk about their lives and needs. This year, AAA held its fifth mahapanchayat.

Working closely with Paramjeet, Sanjay Kumar has spearheaded a number of programmes for AAA as its coordinator. He says: “Initially, when we began holding the homeless panchayats, people were reluctant to be a part of them. They had lived so long on the fringes of social conscience that they had stopped believing that anything could be done to better their lives.”

Photo credit: Infochange

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