Delhi’s Rain Basera - An Illusion of Urban Shelters
Delhi’s concerns with the homeless in addition to the gigantic slum dwellings represent an urban phenomenon prevalent in many of the metropolitan cities across the globe. These get much worse in the advancing winter especially when there is an acute shortage of shelters as thousands march on to sleep on the chilly footpaths.
Stale and extremely unsanitary, the jam-packed Night shelters, incensed by the stagnant odor, precarious and an inhospitable environment, are shared simultaneously by a number of humans, dogs and cats alike. The flickering bonfire and the hostile winter under the Nehru Place flyover, at Sarai kale khan, the newly erected Okhla flyover, Dhaula Kuan, Chandni Chowk adding close to 80 temporary night shelters in all extend some opportune respite to the needy. The people reside under extreme harsh conditions as a lot more than the maximum number cram up every night and also try a bleak chance at that free meal. The four storey building or the flyover, a shack or a terminal/tube, they all act as single home to a multitude of homeless. Some are from Rajasthan, some from Bihar, some from Bengal and some drunk and in need of company. Residents wander far and wide in search of food and some lucky relish the intestines of Chicken or Mutton! The little-ones spend their days roaming the nearby sites in packs tagged along by that tiny puppy from their shack, shared further on with 20 odd people without any prospect of education or a future.
All of this merely sheds valuable insights on an ‘Impeccable’ aspect of our Society; the Grandiose Utopian Delhi culture that boasts of her prosperity in leaps and bound remarkably and has chosen to ignore the penury at hand!
C...
... middle of paper ...
...cal and mental health, beefed up with a lavish child care programme and other community-based services certainly illuminate the gloomy arena. The aim should be to engage and furnish alternate means of livelihood ranging from Soup kitchens, Organic farms, Cottage Industry or any other forms of local services, disarming the discretion from them so they may not wander back into the eclipse and once again tread the ‘paths of destruction’. Winter has always requested special attention and care from the administration over the issue. As the Global warming escalates, the cataclysm may up the ante and further deteriorate the scenario. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone had a clean and quite place to resort to, a nice comfy bed to rest their tired feet on, the basic civic amenities and some or the other form economic engagement?
The urban dreams over! Help the homeless!
Boo’s story begins in Annawadi, a trash-strewn slum located by the Mumbai International Airport. This “sumpy plug of slum” had a population of three thousand people living within 335 huts (Boo, 2011, xi). The land owned by the Airport Authority of India and was surrounded by five hotels that Abdul’s younger brother described as “roses” versus their slum, “the shit in between” (Boo, 2011, xi). Abdul is a Muslim teenage who buys garbage of the rich and sells it to recyclers to support his family. Abdul’s family, Muslim, is a religious minority in the slum of Hindus; in fact a major element of tension within the book can be distilled to these Hindu-Muslim tensions. This difference in religion makes Abdul fearful of his neighbors for two reasons: (1) they would attempt to steal the family’s wealth, and (2) if Abdul were caught, he would not be able to support his family. The other major character was Fatima, a woman who burned herself by attempting suicide through self-immolation. She accused Abdul, his father, and sister of beating and threatening her; in India, it is against the law to convince someone else to kill him or herself. With a corruption-ridden legal sys...
Food is the most important thing to survive, but for homeless, it takes miracle to find food even for a day. Some people got food from begging on the street or buy food by the money they received. Others find food in unfortunate places; trashcan, picking it on the road, or eat others’ leftover. Even if there are chances of getting food from, some also starve and even lead to death. Because of food being so hard to find, 57% homeless spends at least a day being starve (“Statics” 2). For not receiving food and not eating regularly, it affects health conditions. They become sick easily. Once homeless gets sick, it is not easy to get back on track because they do not have anybody that take care of them. While the population of homeless increase, the death rate of homeless people also increase.
Homelessness in the United States has been an important subject that the government needs to turn its attention to. There has been announced in the news that the number of the homeless people in many major cities in the United States has been increasing enormously. According to United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported that there was an estimation of 83,170 individuals have experienced chronic homelessness on the streets of the United States’ streets and shelters on only a single night of January 2015, which is a small decrease of only 1% from the previous year (People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness, n.d.). The United States must consider this subject that most of the people underestimate it and not pay attention
As the article progresses, Kurhi continues to further his purpose of creating an informative, unbiased article by providing the problems that are present within the city’s homelessness, and how it may prevent officials from reaching out to those who are displaced. He notes that the “topography of the county.the numerous creek beds and little pockets of open space. [become] ersatz permanent shelters” (3). Kurhi’s analysis of the problem is evident in this excerpt; his use of imagery serves to create sympathy for the rough conditions that homeless people live in and also creates urgency for the problem of sheltering the homeless.
This great nation of awesome power and abundant resources is losing the battle against homelessness. The casualties can be seen on the street corners of every city in American holding an ?I will work for food? sign. Homeless shelters and rescue missions are at full capacity. There is no room at the inn for the nation?s indigent. Anyone who has studied this issue understands that homelessness is a complex problem. Communities continue to struggle with this socio-economic problem while attempting to understand its causes and implement solutions. The public and private sectors of this country are making a difference in the lives of the homeless by addressing the issues of housing, poverty and education.
Homelessness can happen to anyone unexpectedly. Many poor people are at the risk of homelessness. The cost of living and trying to find affordable housing can be very difficult. Many who are homeless are in poverty, have a mental illness, or addictions. Homelessness happens from personal, as well as structural factors. Many aren’t able to make enough for rent, as well as, utilities, food, and other expenses each month. More than 6 million Americans pay more than half of their income towards rent (Reamer, 1989). The trend is once someone becomes homeless, it is likely they will be homeless repeatedly. To end homelessness, affordable housing will have to be created because it is peoples largest single expenditure (Anderson, 2013).
The subject of the final paper will be concentrating on the homeless people in America, and how we, as American citizens can become a voice and reduce the number of people living in the streets, cars, or wherever they can find shelter for the night. This journal will look at the subject and the path I will need follow to accomplish the task.
Homelessness is a problem that happens in many different countries around the world. Definitions of homelessness are defined in different meanings by different people. However, the Stewart B. McKinney Act defines a homeless person as “ one who lacks a fixed permanent nighttime residence or whose nighttime residence is a temporary shelter, welfare hotel, or any public or private place not designed as sleeping accommodations for human beings” (McNamara 1025). It is impossible to find out exactly the number of homeless; however, the researchers can do a study to estimate that number. Based on different statistics from different researchers, the homeless population in America has been increasing as “an alarming rate” (Markos and Lima). Therefore, even though America is one of the most powerful countries in the world, homelessness, which has many common causes, has always been a big problem in society.
In Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo tells the stories and struggles of families living in a slum adjacent to the Sahar Airport in Mumbai, India. Boo details the ways in which the residents of this slum, Annawadi, attempt to escape their poverty, but fail to do so. Despite numerous initiatives sponsored by the Central Government of India to improve the lives of the many individuals living in Annawadi, these programs are ultimately unable to do so due to deep-rooted corruption in the city of Mumbai. Regardless of this, the residents of Annawadi seem to accept corruption as a fact of life, and do little to fight it. As illustrated over the course of Boo’s narrative, this results from the fact that many Annawadians recognize the ways in which the laws of their society allow for the unfair treatment of certain groups of people, especially the poor and religious minorities, and are also cognizant of the fact that they have no real power to change a system that
Camping is a fun activity for friends and family, that’s the time where they share their memories, and also make new ones. On the other hand, camping is when people are trying to stay off the rain, and wild animals form attacking them. That’s when camping is a time their lives depends on it. The article “Camping for their lives” by Scott Bransford talk about small and big cities that is over populated with homeless citizens. The article talks about what is happening in the scene, and what they have to face each and everyday order to survive.
In order to raise awareness of the staggering injustices, oppression and mass poverty that plague many Indian informal settlements (referred to as slum), Katherine Boo’s novel, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, unveils stories of typical life in a Mumbai slum. Discussing topics surrounding gender relations, environmental issues, and corruption, religion and class hierarchies as well as demonstrating India’s level of socioeconomic development. Encompassing this, the following paper will argue that Boo’s novel successfully depicts the mass social inequality within India. With cities amongst the fastest growing economies in South Eastern Asia, it is difficult to see advances in the individual well-being of the vast majority of the nation. With high
Homelessness is a growing epidemic around the world, and poverty is the most common reason most people are forced to face the miserable life of living without shelter. The only way that we can help this unfortunate situation is to take action, and by doing that, we need to know the facts about this unfortunate situation. Over two-million people live in emergency shelters, and transitional housing. With so many people living in poverty, it gives us a better understanding as to why there are so many homeless people today. Having no food, and relying on food kitchens, garbage scraps, and stealing food, is a very tragic situation. With no protection from the elements, many of them will die from heat strokes, or quite frankly, freeze to death. The average american purchases food and other household goods for their families, and some never stop to think of those less...
Homelessness is descriptive condition of someone without a permanent or regular dwelling. Homeless people most often are not in a position to acquire as well as maintain a safe, regular, and adequate housing. Being that one of the most fundamental human needs is shelter, it is important and health for every human to at least acquire one. Unfortunately, it is becoming rather a difficulty to own a home in the current century given the economic recessions frequently occurring in almost globally. Although the legal definitions for homelessness may vary from country to country, the central idea includes people whose primary nighttime residence could be a homeless shelter, a domestic violence shelter, cardboard boxes or ad hoc housing circumstances. They could also be people who take shelter at night in a private or public place that is not primarily designed or suitable for use as a regular sleeping housing for humans.
Walking down the streets of large cities it is common to see men, women, and sometimes even whole families laying beside buildings. Some people may ignore them and keep walking, some feel frightened, and some see the homeless as a human being and treat them like one. These people tend to be dirty, smelly, or they have a sad look that has overtaken their faces because of their struggle to survive. The people sleeping outside of buildings are homeless. Being homeless means not having anywhere to call home, although it also can mean living in a place that was never intended to house humans, such as a bus stop or a highway underpass. It is tempting to wedge the homeless together under a single label but there are an abundance of contrasting causes
The issue I am concerned about is of homelessness. There are many people who are living in the streets, hungry, cold and lonely. According to estimates, 100 million people worldwide are literally homeless. They have no shelter: they sleep in doorways, in parks or under bridges. Or they sleep in public buildings like railway or bus stations, or in night shelters set up to provide homeless people with a bed. (Leach, Monte. "A Roof Is Not Enough - a Look at Homelessness Worldwide, by Monte Leach, Share International Archives." N.p., 12 Jan. 2016).