Homeless women of India suffers the brunt of rapid urbanization

No one wants to be homeless by choice; it is sometimes because of the circumstances that put them in an uncomfortable situation. It is miserably to hear that one of the groups that are worst affected by the phenomenon of homelessness constitutes the women in India. Homelessness is a major issue in India. State’s commitment to a welfare state fails in responding to the needs of homelessness and the corresponding crisis at various levels brought by this phenomenon.
Statistically showed that India is the second most populous nation in the world (with more than 1.3 Billion people). Its rapidly growing population is adding to the existing problems of poverty, homelessness, and unemployment.
The Census of India defines homeless people as persons who are not living in census house thus refers to those without even a basic shelter over their head. Majority of homeless people, including women are found living in places such as roadsides, pavements, drainage pipes, under staircases, temples, streets, platforms and the like.
Homeless women bear the burden, as they are more susceptible to any various forms of abuse, degrading treatment and violence on the street. Tragically, most of these gentlewomen have left abusive marriages, suffered sexual violence, or have been abandon by their respective family. Moreover, these women including those in young age who spend sleepless nights in the dangerous streets are most vulnerable to Instances of rape, molestation, murder, sexual exploitation and gender-based violence being common.
Dismayingly, some local bodies and the police, instead of helping these homeless persons they are involved in harassing these deprived folks. There are those who snatch their goods and displace them at will, and women then have no option but to take to begging and worst at worst they received violence from male police who slap and physically abuse women, even when they are sleeping at night. Also, Homeless women of India also encounters foul languages and verbal abuse, as they are being called and insulted by the locals as “sex workers.”
Due to the stigma attached to being vagrant, women face more difficulty in finding jobs as most of them have small children to care every day. Unfortunately, they are in the place where everything has to pay for, in exchange for services and commodities needed for them to survive, thus include facilities such as toilets, bathrooms, and water. Women, who asserted in persistent poverty, are forced by circumstances to take up sex work to survive. There are reports wherein if the women do not succumb to these pressures there is a threat of putting their tents on fire. They battle not only the elements of inadequacy and deprivation of survival necessities but also with repeated inhumane sexual and social abuse.
Located in Regarpura in the city of Delhi, capital of the country, there exists only one shelter for the homeless people who can only accommodate a capacity of 30 women. It is extremely inadequate to provide a place to live with to about estimated 10,000 homeless women.
There is an urgent need to address this societal phenomenon, and if we depend on the solution of this problem to the state, this might took a long while. A combination of a humanitarian and a human rights approach is needed to address both the immediate and the long-term need of homeless women and communities and wipe away levels of discrimination faced by them.