On June 8 and 9 this year, when the heat wave was at its peak in the Capital, 41 people died on the city’s streets. Not six months ago, in December and January when the temperatures plummeted sharply, 174 succumbed to the cold.
India is estimated to have more than 78 million homeless people across its cities. Delhi alone, known for its extreme heat and cold, is home to more than 56,000 of them, according to a 2011 survey conducted by the United Nations Development Programme, the most recent attempt at mapping the homeless.
Coming into the city for a variety of reasons, the homeless are some of the least-documented, most neglected people. Despite an average of eight deaths every day, the cause for their deaths is seldom investigated properly. The facilities and infrastructure to prevent more such fatalities also fall well short of the requirements. There are only 184 shelter homes across Delhi, for instance, and only 82 of these are permanent; the rest are makeshift structures, including disused DTC buses.
However, as Rani, a migrant I met outside the Chandni Chowk metro station, put it, “It is tough to survive this city without a roof over your head. But it’s harder to go back with nothing.”
Photos by Ramesh Sharma