Not just the cold, theft and sex abuse give Delhi’s homeless the shivers too

NEW DELHI: The mercury is dropping fast, but people living in the open are worried about more than just finding shelter. While the harsh weather is indeed the biggest challenge for them, according to 91% of the homeless who responded to a series of question posed by Indo-Global Social Service Society (IGSSS), as many as 86% feared theft and a high 68% said they lived in fear of physical and sexual harassment. Nearly 85% of the women surveyed during the study shared their fear of harassment, both physical and sexual.


There were other worries too. Ironically, being able to get enough food bothered just 21% of homeless people (40% for women, 19% for men), when harassment by police was an anxiety shared by 42% and threat to life by 39%. While deaths of the homeless in car accidents make headlines on and off, it was a daily fear for 78% of the people who slept on the streets.

And while the #MeToo movement may have empowered women across sectors to expose the sexual harassment they faced, the homeless survey of 1,141 people reveals that the women on the streets are suffering in silence. Women reported being harassed while trying to use the toilets. They also said groups of men followed them after dark. However, though the female respondents said that harassment was one of the biggest risks about living in the open, fewer cases of women being harassed are reported. The study inferred that the women are afraid to speak up about such incidents.

General harassment appeared to be common among the homeless, though most respondents appeared unclear about the concept and did not admit to being harassed. “The apathy is exemplified by three-fourths of the respondents admitting to having extended no help to a victim” even when witnessing an act of harassment, the report stated. The stigma of being homeless and helpless was clear in the respondents revealing that the general public was the biggest harasser followed by employers. Police and traffic police came a distant third. Relatives, friends and peer groups were also mentioned as harasser groups.

On the kinds of harassment, 35.2% said they had faced physical harassment, 25.9% had faced mental harassment, while 22.2% reported verbal abuse and 13% financial harassment. People admitting to having encountered sexual harassment constituted 3.7% of those surveyed.

The study noted that almost 70% of the respondents had been living in Delhi for more than five years, which means they have been involved in the daily economic activities of the city for a substantial period. The trend is similar for both men and women.

Aravind Unni, who leads the urban poverty team at IGSSS, said it was safe to assume that these observations would remain much the same in the future, so adequate measures needed to be taken to improve the quality of life of the street people. The survey also dispels the notion that the homeless are temporary migrant workers who don’t live in the city for lengthy periods.

Around 55% of the homeless people surveyed have spent more than 10 years without a permanent shelter, indicating that employment opportunities and social security schemes have not alleviated poverty and social insecurity in real terms. “This is a worrying trend signifying that the problem of poverty and homelessness is vicious and chronic, and interventions which have been made are not adequate to address the issues of the homeless. There is an urgent need to understand the causes behind not using shelter and think about alternatives beyond shelter homes as well,” the survey report concluded.