Research ThemES
Shelter
Water and Sanitation
Food and Nutrition
The presence of houseless groups in Indian cities is ubiquitous, yet there has been a tendency to invisibilize them in policy and planning. The urban houseless inhabit precarious urban conditions, yet they consider these spaces as their homes. Our collective aims to understand some of these paradoxes and challenge the dominant understanding of shelter, housing and home.
Food and Nutrition
Water and Sanitation
Food and Nutrition
The relationship between houselessness and food insecurity is often less understood. The various lived experiences of houselessness indicate diverse practices of procuring, organising, storing and expenditure on food.
Water and Sanitation
Water and Sanitation
Water and Sanitation
Houseless populations are vulnerable to a range of public risks. They often face punitive measures for accessing water and sanitation facilities. Providing water and sanitation has been identified as a key preventative measure to protect their health and wellbeing.
Access to Health
Dignity, Security and Unsafety
Water and Sanitation
The precarious living conditions and scant access to basic services, affordable housing, adequate income, proper nutrition, basic health facilities have a crippling effect, especially on houseless children. Lack of access to basic medical services exacerbates their exposure to harmful physical and mental conditions.
Livelihoods
Dignity, Security and Unsafety
Dignity, Security and Unsafety
While the houseless population contribute significantly to our economies, they are mostly daily wage earners and work in informal arrangements. Their work settings lay outside the safety nets and financial aids, with no support on livelihood resilience. Moreover, urban planning and policy disregard their livelihood needs when intervening around housing and often rehabilitate them in spaces that are not sensitive to their work.
Dignity, Security and Unsafety
Dignity, Security and Unsafety
Dignity, Security and Unsafety
Houselessness not only deprives individuals of their rights to food, water and shelter but also safety and dignity. Their rendered invisibility precludes them from accessing their constitutional rights to social programmes, and subjects them to various kinds of mistreatment from the wider city.
Encounters with the State and Media
Encounters with the State and Media
Encounters with the State and Media
The houseless are disproportionately affected by the immediate impact and the aftermath of any crisis. Most often, inadequate information about the houseless population and its multi-dimensional socio-economic vulnerabilities is also a contributing factor.