How less are the Homeless?

“Snakes have holes, birds have sky but man has no shelter on earth!”
We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty – Mother Teresa
And again I woke up to see the same people lying on the roadside having no shelter to cover their head. Sixty seven years have been counted since we gained our independence to again to succumb to trap of poverty, malnutrition, corruption, rapes, illiteracy and many more things in queue. A chain of thoughts ran into my mind that where from these poor neglected people come from to occupy the footpaths for their sleep which are genuinely meant for walk, were they born homeless/vagrants, does our government have any policy/plan for them and for their safety, does these homeless creatures bother are government, why numbers of homeless people are swelling in, what is their future?………. and so on.
Albeit, many acts, schemes, bills has been tabled and introduced but no solution has been yet found in this regard, on contrary condition of these poor chaps has gone more dilapidated then hell. Twelve months of the calendar these people has to struggle to find a place to have a sleep. In summer they wait to cool down of the earth, in monsoon when skies open up, they have nowhere to go and they quest & wait for soaked land, in winter they again seek for place which can keep them little warm to fight algid winter
Taking an example form national capital, Most of the homeless in Delhi comprise of migrants, coming from rural areas, looking for work but a lot also enter from neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Nepal. The migrants include both skilled and unskilled laborers. They pull rickshaws, work in dhabas or tea stalls, work on construction sites and learn carpentry or painting. More and more people are coming into the city, looking for work and hoping that their dreams have a better chance of actualizing with the resources the city has to offer. They come to earn a better livelihood and increase their standard of living, and in reality, they end nowhere and take these odd jobs. To overcome this amok situation like homelessness in New Delhi, the government introduced abandoned bus shelters as night shelters in a desperate move to protect the city’s homeless people from the bitterly cold winter, this initiative failed due to the myriad number of needed people and meager number of buses available, deterred condition of theses buses was also contributing factor making this move ineffective.

Existing Facts about Homeless People:
Housing is a basic human need, yet the statistics of United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2005 notes that, an estimated 100 million people -one-quarter of the world’s population- live without shelter or in unhealthy and unacceptable conditions. Over 100 million people around the world have no shelter whatsoever. The health consequences of this level of homelessness are profound. The Action Aid in 2003 had found out that there were 78 million homeless people in India alone. CRY (Child Relief and You) in 2006 estimated that there are 11 million homeless children live on the street. The statistics are grim. What is worse is that very little is known of what it means to be part of such horrific numbers.
Reckoning the condition in India, with a population of well over 1 billion people, India is the second most populous nation in the world. According to UN-HABITAT, India is home to 63% of all slum dwellers in South Asia. This amounts to 170 million people, 17% of the world’s slum dwellers. India’s per capita income, although rising, rank’s it 124th in the world. This low per capita income is one factor that marks the sharp divide between India’s wealthiest and poorest citizens. Approximately 35 percent of India’s 260 million people (a group almost equal to the entire population of the United States) still earns $1 or less a day. And according to the United Nations, 70 million people earn less than $2 a day. As India continues to grow in economic stature, there’s much debate over the country’s ability to tackle poverty and urban homelessness. A 2001 census reported that 78 million people across India were living without a home, many in overcrowded urban environments.^[1]
In absolute terms, urban population saw a rise in homeless population from 7.78 lakh people in 2001 to 9.38 lakh people in 2011, but rural areas witnessed a decline from 11.6 lakh people to 8.34 lakh people. However, Uttar Pradesh had the highest proportion of homeless people in the country. Of the total homeless, 18.56% was in in UP, followed by Maharashtra (11.9%) and Rajasthan (10.24%).
Homelessness in rural areas is mirrored by an almost equal rise in urban areas. As the homeless declined by about 66,000 households in rural areas, it went up by about 69,000 households in urban areas, recording a growth rate of 20.5% as against a decline of 28.4% in rural areas.