Street talk!

                            

                         

                 Gray Life on the street 

More people in our country lack of homes today.They live under the flyovers,under old broken bridges,inside plumbing pipeline, near railway stations, road dividers, pavements - they are everywhere.Every single day.We all pass them by uncaringly. Daily. Even me included.It is not easy seeing someone trying to survive on the streets of the city, and our reactions can range from pity, to anger, to choosing not to see the person at all. ... what it's like to have no home.Homelessness is about more than just poverty.And on bone chilling winters some arere visibly distressed and freezing, barely able to feel their hands.


It was an early flight and i was on the way back home with my brother after leaving my younger sister to Delhi International Airport who had come for a short visit to India.Our car stopped at the red light signal.Suddenly out of blue in a road swelled with traffic,a small young girl around 4 years zoomed to our car and started knocking on the window.She had a dirty cloth in one hand and small jar in another for collecting money.The little girl then comes to the other side of the car where i am seated to clean the window.Between all this chaos we saw her discussing an evening dinner to another friend who is also cleaning another car.I glance across the road at a woman sitting on road crossing with a crying baby on her lap.In-between,we overheard the girl at our car window tell the other child that her mother is fighting malaria and the girl has not eaten anything from morning.With such ease,speed and expertise in crossing such a dangerous road.As fast as she came to our car she zoomed to an Volkswagen with foreign tourist.The little girl by the car window turns to the man in the driver's seat and smiles.She smooths her hair and torn frock and tells him he is going to love this city.He looks over somewhat pityingly at the child.After cleaning their car and some sweet talk.They hand her some money which she happily ogles and puts in her jar.And suddenly she disappeared she was again back to our car begging.I couldn't just resist overlooking her.Just behind her is overseen a jhuggi cluster.The drains are clogged and there’s stagnant water everywhere where mosquitoes breed.Its the same place where jhuggi residents take bathe and also collect drinking water for daily use.In between all this chaos,a little boy aged around 10, reads a textbook in his father's rickshaw before he goes to a government-run school that gives him free meals. His ambition may be is to become a doctor and treat people for free.Like some those living in society flats.It's noisy, smoky, smelly, crowded and chaotic — not a part of New Delhi that you'd consider a tourist destination.


Living conditions of these people are even worse.With several on the verge of hunger.I was hoping that the government would also banish corrupt political leaders, Administrators, Police officers, Businessmen and criminals/mafias instead of these poor homeless people.Unless the underlying causes of begging are addressed, and the rights of homeless and poor are properly secured, India will always remain prone to wide-spread begging.It deepened and clarified my thought about how once a friend of mine had told me that children caught begging are sent to juvenile homes,makeshift arrangements, or shelter homes & even sometimes  sent criminal homes where they are held hostage for 3 years.Moreover, the conditions of these shelters also seem to be appalling.Or take the living condition of that handicapped woman living on a small disability pension stands on a corner trying to sell a tea, biscuits and cigarette so she can get a small meal.She thinks about her own situation and about the people who walk by her giving wicked sneer look at  her.Very much baffling situation.

The homeless are considered to be a burden on civic infrastructure.And Life on the streets: Homelessness is about more than just poverty.Thanks to the Commonwealth Games (CWG),Delhi may well be bringing its citizens world-class infrastructure.But the human cost of development and the long-term impact on the poorer sections are either being underplayed or overlooked.If the country is building a world-class city, then it should have world-class standards for workers,beggars and many poor people.It’s very frustrating that the government is breaching such a progressive legislation.The state is breaching its own laws.Under Indian laws, homeless beggars are treated as criminals and booked under various beggary laws.Though the homeless exist in large numbers, society is trying to render them invisible.Most homeless people are not beggars.Because Street workers from second-hand clothes sellers to rickshaw drivers say they are mostly left undisturbed, too poor to afford a home of their own.

The study shows that homelessness is caused by extreme poverty, unavailability of low cost housing, unstable employment, unemployment and destitution or family abuse.Termed as transient, and thereby difficult to trace, they are not given voter identity or ration cards that require 'address proofs'.As a result, they are excluded from the benefits of citizenship.The government wants to show foreigners arriving for the games that there are no poor in India.What does the country want to hide?

In the absence of strong action from the government, we continue to have the largest number of child labourers in the world.

And rising levels of homelessness and rough sleeping in India is beyond shameful in one of the developing countries in the world and it’s a sad fact that for years some of India’s most vulnerable people have been let down and ignored.

While Govt.Snores,millions Of Indian's live on street and Have No Place To Sleep.