海角大神

Kusum sits braiding her daughter鈥檚 hair beneath a busy overpass in Nizamuddin, a south Delhi neighborhood. She and her six children spent the night here, huddling together on the grimy pavement beneath torn old saris.

鈥淥h, it was so bad,鈥� says the mother, who migrated to the capital from West Bengal in search of work. While she has earned enough here as a daily wage laborer to send all her children to school, she says she is unable to provide them shelter.

Kusum and her kids are among the estimated 150,000 people who sleep on streets and in parks of India's capital. Late last month, following a petition by a human rights group, the People鈥檚 Union for Civil Liberties, which complained that the government had not taken adequate action this winter to help people like Kusum, India鈥檚 Supreme Court ruled that the Municipal Council of Delhi (MCD) must immediately set up night shelters for the city鈥檚 homeless.

MCD immediately opened 37 new shelters capable of holding 5,000 people, but this didn't end Kusum鈥檚 exhausting, icy nights and her anxiety for her children鈥檚 health. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know of any shelters 鈥� if I did we鈥檇 go to them,鈥� she says.

Though India鈥檚 winters are brief 鈥� cold in December, but already warm by mid-February 鈥� the freezing cold nighttime temperatures frequently recorded in January are brutal for the homeless, especially those weakened by malnutrition. In Nizamuddin neighborhood on a recent morning, few people seemed to possess even a blanket.

Wretched poverty has always been evident in Delhi. But the problem of winter homelessness has been exacerbated this year by a cutback in government shelters and an surge in the number of people moving from the country to the city in search of work.

Only 24 government shelters were open most of this winter, compared to 46 last year, according to the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Raquel Rolnick. In a recent statement she said the dearth appeared to be linked to the city鈥檚 preparations for the Commonwealth Games, to which it plays host in October.

One shelter on a traffic island in south Delhi that housed 250 people was demolished, she said, 鈥渁llegedly resulting in the death of two people.鈥�

Staff and pupils of a nearby school, St. Michael鈥檚, which is run by the Catholic archdiocese of Delhi, saw what had happened to the men and women evicted from that shelter and kept their classrooms open at night for them to sleep in.

鈥淭here was a great need that had to be addressed immediately,鈥� says Father Dominic Emmanuel, communications director of the Catholic Archdiocese of Delhi. 鈥淎nd more people have come to stay every night.鈥�

Paramjeet Kaur of Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan, one of the few charities dedicated to the homeless in Delhi, which operates 26 shelters, says activists will have to work hard to ensure the court ruling is followed.

鈥淭he Delhi government has opened new shelters,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut there needs to be much more of a partnership between the government and people who actually work with the homeless. We need funding and support.鈥�

In the meantime, the MCD鈥檚 spokesman, Deep Mathur, says the 37 new shelters have doubled the city's capacity in night shelters to 10,000 persons. Each shelter provides free blankets, mats, drinking water, electricity, and newspapers. 鈥淚t鈥檚 too soon after the court鈥檚 order to judge whether we have followed it properly,鈥� he adds.

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