For Bangalore’s thousands of homeless, life’s a nightmare... every waking hour

When a group of around 180 volunteers under the aegis the of Indo-Global Social Service Society (IGSSS), a voluntary organisation, recently set out to tabulate the numbers of homeless people on Bangalore’s pavements, they came across some shocking stories.

Horror stories ranging from acid attacks, sexual abuse, police and goon atrocities to regular fights for two square meals, Bangalore’s homeless population, who have no roofs over their heads, are leading a hellish life.

Around 17,441 pavement dwellers whom the volunteers interviewed in a period of two days revealed that if women are exposed to regular sexual assaults, then men are at the mercy of police and goon atrocities.

The survey report also carries some case studies, indicating large-scale physical and mental torture of homeless people in the city. The survey covered people who sleep in plastic tents, under flyovers, footpaths, in front of shops, temples and those who dwell in parks and railway stations.

“Our survey was done during a period of two days across 198 wards of Bangalore. The survey was done at night as that is the time when pavement dwellers can be found either sleeping or eating their food on roads, after their day’s work. However, we are dead sure there would be several more thousands of pavement dwellers in the city. Our volunteers could not have reached them, because of limited resources and time  constraints,” SS Rajani, programme officer of IGSSS said.

Rajani said that most of the pavement dwellers live in inhuman conditions. They have no security, no access to food, sanitation, medical facilities or education.

“The conditions for women are pitiable. I have met a woman who stays at City Market. She is a victim of an acid attack. Her face has been almost deformed after the attack. This happened after she resisted a sexual attack on her,” said Rajani.

The survey report also highlighted cases in which three generations of a family were found to be spending their entire life on the streets.

“It is sad, but true. We met few families where three generations have spent their lives without a proper roof over their heads,” said Sudha K, member of Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR), another NGO that took part in the survey.

The survey was done by IGSSA with help from 29 other Bangalore-based NGOs.

The survey report comes close on the heels of a Supreme Court recent judgement that says that all states should provide at least one sheltered home per one lakh population that is homeless in every urban centre by 2010 end.

The Urban Poverty Report 2010 has shown that 28 per cent of the population is homeless in cities, said Rajani. 

A national campaign for urban homeless has been launched by IGSSS to guarantee them fundamental rights. The objective of the national caravan campaign is to ensure that homeless people of the country get enumerated in the national census survey of 2010-11 and provide them with voter’s identification cards, ration cards, access to other government welfare programmes, right to livelihood and right to basic facilities like drinking water, sanitation and social security.

“Our campaign is National City Makers Caravan. We have, in fact, called the homeless people as city makers, as they contribute for the growth of the city. Currently, the caravan is in Karnataka, it reaches Bangalore on October 8. It will travel across various parts of the state,” informed Rajani.