In the time I wake up in the morning and go to bed at nighttime, I subject myself to every blow the city delivers to my dainty, little body. But after a hard day’s night, as the Beatles would sing, when I’m home, ‘everything seems to be right.’ Right then, Phil Collins butts in and remarks, ‘Oh, think twice, it’s just another day for you and me in Paradise.’

​

We need a place we can call home, don’t we?

​

The homeless, as Gandhian social activist Baba Jadhav describes them, are those who have the sky for a roof and no ground beneath their feet.

​

Article 21 of the Indian Constitution states that no person should be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by the law.

​

The right to live – not plainly survive under a tarpaulin sheet on a pavement outside stations, shopping malls, offices, law courts, schools, colleges..

​

Apart from 41% of Mumbai’s 12.47 million that lives in slums, the Census 2011 figure on the homeless (those without a pucca roof over their heads) was 57, 416, drawing dispute from activists who estimate the number to be three to four lakh.

 

Who are the homeless?

​

From a joint study conducted by Alternative Realities, Action Aid and Tata Institute of Social Sciences in 6 zones and 24 wards of Mumbai, it was found that 75% of the homeless population lies between the age of 16-45 years. It also suggested that they work in low-end jobs like putting up banners, catering business, loading unloading, etc. The city is thus bipolar to the point where it is impossible to live without the other half of it since it is helping run a major part of the city’s economy! The situation is not so different today than it was about twenty years ago when filmmaker Anand Patwardhan documented the slum-clearing programme, which was started as a means of beautifying the city, and the issue of homelessness. It is prevalent in working of the city and appalling to say the least.

​

It is a schizophrenic city in the sense that it constantly feels the need to drive out the very migrant population that helps run major businesses. The plight of migrant labour often manifests in the form of urban poverty and a sense of homelessness that is quite different from the literal sense of the word. ‘Bidesia in Bombay’ is a recent documentary that paints a picture of the Bhojpuri music industry (that stems from Bihar, a state in India) that would seem like a sub-culture versus the larger Bollywood music industry scene. But calling it a sub-culture would be a misnomer. It is not that small after all, and a large population of the migrant labour comes from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The occasional Bhojpuri movie and concerts during festivals are the only things that feel like home in a city that they would flinch to call their own. So, the idea of a ‘home’ will have to open up to allow cultural avenues to be incorporated in terms of infrastructure.

​

An affidavit filed by the Maharashtra state has discarded this informal labour as beggars, thus abandoning the issue of homelessness in the city. As per the Supreme Court of India’s directive, shelters for homeless (one shelter per one lakh urban population) must be set up in 62 major cities of India under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. It stated:

“Homeless people are subject to continuous violence and abuse. Living in the open with no privacy or protection for even for women and children, is a gross denial of the right to live with dignity.”

​

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation successively allocated 2.40 crore for night shelters and also told the court that it already had 11 shelters for the homeless being run by NGOs, when in reality the organizations mentioned had been running the shelters for over two decades.  According to the SC directive of one shelter, which can accommodate 100, for every lakh of the population, we need around 284 night shelters in Maharashtra. Till 2012, only 12 permanent and 12 temporary shelters were built across the entire state! A whopping 95.8% of shelters were not built.

​

The lack of public infrastructure for the general populace and a constant rise of prices affects the poor, while it causes minimal damage to the tight-knit pockets of the rich. Social security and public housing are terms we are unfamiliar with. The government relies on the private sector to give back to society and affect change. NGOs like Snehasadan Foundation, Alternative Realities and Social Development Centre have been running rehabilitation programmes for the homeless.

​

A visit to the houses or ‘homes’ built by the Snehasadan Foundation helped put some questions to rest.

I met with Father Noel of Snehasadan. The home is made in a fairly large complex owned by the St. Holy Cross Church in Vakola. There are three homes currently (two of them have been accommodated in the building of an engineering college in the same campus, while the original homes undergo renovation) that houses homeless children.

​

How does one create independent youngsters who won’t go back to homelessness once they step out? How does one maintain a level of dignity without being patronising? The house comprises of a large hall of about 100 square meters that doubles as the living room during the day and a bedroom at night, with toilets and a kitchen next door. It houses nearly 20 children of various age groups. Each house is run by House Parents. The house parents have their own family, too, and live separately in another room. But you know that there isn’t any barrier between the kids and the parents when you see them gathered around the television, watching their favourite cartoon serial, which reminded me of being a part of a joint family in my childhood. The house, then, becomes a home.

The architecture is not pretentious, but rather like an ordinary home. There  is no library or multi-functional hall because ‘it’s not an institution, but a home,’ as I’m reminded more than twice in my interaction with Father Noel. But they have ample open space, trees and a large ground to play in and that makes me a tiny bit envious.

​

I would be interested in knowing if there is scope for developing more private spaces in a place where one lives with 20 others. Such an environment can get stifling at times. Apart from this, they have an in-house counsellor since many kids have come from troubled homes. The counsellor also conducts aptitude tests to ascertain probable career choices. Snehasadan also has outreach centres in the city, where volunteers work in the field and in tandem with the Child Welfare Committee to identify particularly distressful cases and rehabilitate them.

​

Manav Sadhna Kendra in Ahmedabad is one project that moves a step further to articulate these ideas into a built form. It is one of the only buildings that projects the idea of sustainability and dignity without being kitschy and patronising in its approach. A large homeless populace survives on the pithy remainder of consumerist waste. An image of desperate poverty superimposed with  a grand and unnecessary celebration of some festival comes up.

​

Apart from the literal sense of the word, homelessness also exists in cultural voids. ‘Bidesia in Bombay’ is a recent documentary that paints a picture of the Bhojpuri music industry in Mumbai. The occasional Bhojpuri movie and concerts during festivals are the only things that feel like home for migrants in a city that they would flinch to call their own. So, the idea of a ‘home’ will have to open up to allow cultural avenues to be incorporated in terms of infrastructure.

​

Architects rarely think about the ethical nature of their practice. Even in the academic life, we are not asked what good the building or project does, but rather how good the building is. This self-centeredness percolates into the urban fabric. For example, gated communities have become the norm today. Lifestyles fostered within such urban complexes virtually shun all social and public responsibilities, in order to enjoy their own lives and are defeatist. They bring about the disintegration of the cultural and social integrity of the city.

​

Does anyone even give two hoots about social integrity?

​

So, what architecture can do is to alter the idea of ‘good’ and ‘bad’, of ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’, of ‘luxury’ and ‘penury’. We are fed with ideas that drive our minds towards certain ideas of a good life, but how often do we step aside and question what we essentially believe in? What is our imagination of the world and its people?