Campaign & Pilot program for food Security Rights of Homeless People in Delhi

India is a third world country, poor in comparison with the western world. No matter how many years pass, the view of city life gives a sharp pain in our heart. Millions are homeless, living in the streets, with only some rags for their possessions.

For the men, women and children who are forced to live under the open sky on pavements on the courtyards of shrines, under bridges and in drainage pipes or the verandas of shopping areas in the cities and towns of India, life is an unremitting struggle. Against hunger, loneliness, sickness, and the unfulfilled longing for an uninterrupted night's sleep amidst the noise of traffic, the glare of street lights, the perennial perils of sexual and physical assaults, and the brutality of the police.

Among those who live on the streets, some of the most defenceless groups are single women and aged people without care, people with disabilities, street sex workers, and people living with leprosy, mental illness and AIDS, all of whom subsist in sub-human conditions of heart-rending stigma, exclusion and deprivation. Of paramount vulnerability also are street children because of poor sanitary conditions, inadequate nutrition, psychosocial stress, exclusion from schools, sexual exploitation, exposure to hard drugs, deprivation of adult protection and the coercion to work.

For homeless people on the streets, not only is there no protection from the extreme of nature, and physical and sexual abuse, children are deprived of education and childhood. There is also rampant hidden hunger. For residents of the streets, it is impossible to have even a single nutritious home-cooked meal. They have to buy their cooked food, if they can afford it. The most vulnerable among them have no option except to survive on stale food in rubbish heaps or relying on begging and charity, even for their daily meals. Several activists have found many homeless who have gone without food for several days at a stretch.

However, most people are under the impression that nobody goes hungry in a place like Delhi (or Chennai or other big cities) as many religious and charitable organizations provide free food to the people. However, on close interactions with the homeless, one realizes that this is far from the truth.

The working homeless (who account for 90% of the homeless population in Delhi) are unable to cook food in the open due to lack of private space. After toiling the whole day - driving rickshaws, washing dishes or loading/unloading heavy goods, they are left with no option but to spend a considerable part of their meager earnings on unhygienic and less nutritious food from 'roadside dhabas'.

How can we sleep in peace when we hear a baby across the street crying because of fever, or when the monsoon rain falls mercilessly on a homeless family that looks in vain for a shelter? How can we rest in our cool rooms when fellow beings are baking in the hot tropical sun in the streets and sidewalks for days, months, and years? Life for these people has no yesterday or tomorrow. There is only today. Are they going to survive today? Garbage which is plentiful everywhere, serves as a source of hope for the homeless people, animals, and crows. There they will find old scraps of paper that they will sell for a slice of bread. There they will discover something to burn in order to cook their rice so that they can fool their hunger. Wherever one's eyes turn, they witness indescribable despair and human degradation. How can we respond to this abyss of human suffering? Where do we start? Human efforts are limited, and we know that no matter what we do, it will be a drop in the ocean. Nevertheless, we are still responsible to try with all our strength and this is what brings us all together.

Several concerned citizens have resolved to join hands, and also demand accountability from a caring state, to ensure that no one in the city of Delhi is forced to sleep under the open sky and go hungry, and no child is out of school.

Whereas in the long run, the state government must ensure the fulfillment of all these three objectives, in the short run this will be achieved through a major people's campaign initiated by collaboration of three Delhi based non- profits - Gandhi Peace Foundation, India Sponsor Foundation and Business and Community Foundation.

The objective of the campaign briefly are as follows: -

1) To run a food bank providing at least one subsidized nutritious cooked meal or soup kitchen to homeless persons at Rs. 2 per meal or a nominal rate.

2) To ensure supply of food grains through setting up urban grain banks in the urban context & collection points in schools, colleges, shopping centres, etc.

3) To run the program through a volunteer corps networks, that can include homeless cadres & create a income generation project for & by the homeless connecting them across the city & cities ultimately.

4) To ensure the program is low cost & replicable

This Food security program for the homeless is not only a solution but is a profound opportunity to unleash the human spirit. This initiative endeavours towards mobilizing the energy, responsibility, creativity and resources of the homeless themselves and thus build on to a sustainable profit making food program for the homeless and by the homeless. The program is scheduled to start up by December 2004 and preparations are already on a full swing.

For more details please contact

Ms Nidhi Bhasin
Prog. Officer- Business and Community Foundation
Bharat Yuvak Bhavan (2nd floor)
1, Jaisingh Road.
New Delhi - 110001
Ph : 23360439, 23348973
Email : nidhibhasin@bcfindia.org

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