Maharashtra defies Supreme Court directive on homeless shelters

As the fight for the children illegally remanded in a children’s home heats up, there is a larger issue that is slowly gaining focus. Abhishek Bharadwaj, co-founder of NGO Alternative Realities and other activists are looking at this from the macro perspective: finding a solution to the problem of the homeless.

The UN special rapporteur on adequate housing Miloon Kothari defined the human right to adequate housing, as: ‘The right of every woman, man, youth and child to gain and sustain a safe and secure home and community in which to live in peace and dignity.’ In Article 21 of the Constitution, the right to life has also been interpreted to recognise the right to shelter.

Last May the Supreme Court had directed all states to look into the issue of homeless shelters, directing them to build one shelter for every 1 lakh people in cities with population above 5 lakh by December 31, 2010.

Yet, Mumbai with a population of 1,64,34,386 (Census 2001), does not have a single shelter for the homeless.

Maharashtra government’s “ignorance” to the problem of the homeless, according to many activists, is the core problem.

“Children of homeless families in Mumbai will obviously be seen roaming on the streets. It’s their backyard. Just because they stay there does not mean they are begging or their parents are exploiting them,” Bharadwaj said.

The issue, he said was that the government has not provided them with a safe place to stay, resulting in them getting victimised and criminalised.

The Maharashtra government in compliance with the Supreme Court directive had filed an affidavit in response. While it acknowledged that homeless are the poorest of the poor of the city and cannot afford informal housing, it put slum dwellers and beggars in the same category as the homeless and cited schemes of slum dwellers as meant for homeless.

Indu Prakash Singh, technical advisor of the Indo-Global Social Service Society, who initiated the cause of the shelter for the homeless in the Supreme Court, said, “The Maharashtra government in its reply to the Supreme Court said that there are beggar homes in the state but we are not demanding for beggar homes. You cannot categorise the homeless as beggars,” Singh added.

“The Maharashtra government was asked to file a reply on the same by April 4 but as of now there has been no communication from their end. If they fail to do so there are chances of a contempt of court case against them,” he said.

Till then, the one question asked by Bharadwaj still stands: “Where will the homeless and their children go?”