Introduction
Homelessness has for a long time been a problem with cities. Homeless people, unlike people living in slums, do not have any shelter. They are mainly found in big cities that are characterized by the high cost of housing. In this essay, we critically analyze homelessness in Mumbai, India. With the current socioeconomic status of people living in Mumbai, nothing less than a high degree of homelessness can be expected.
Statistics of Homelessness in Mumbai
India is famous for the popularity of pavement dwellers in its large cities. In Mumbai alone, approximately 250 000 have the streets as their shelter. These pavement dwellers have no rights to the comforts of the city and thus they sleep in the open. In the recent past, Mumbai had approximately 38, 000 homeless. Presently, it is estimated that this number has increased exponentially to hundreds of thousands as stated above. The city is characterized by shocking statistics of housing problems. It is estimated that approximately half of all the people living in the city are homeless or they are housed informally or they have semi-permanent houses. During 2001 India’s population census, out of a total of 11.9 million, 5.8 million were living on pavements, slums, or shanties. A detailed study showed that some of these people did not fit the description of poverty held by the Indian government. From the discussion above, one may wonder what the ideal definition of homelessness in Mumbai, India is. To solve this problem, consider the analysis made during the 2001 census. The homeless were classified that showed their level of homelessness. The first of these categories included people who do not have any form of shelter and therefore they sleep in open spaces in the city. The second was comprised of people who construct plastic shanties on sidewalks. The third category is comprised of people who have made use of vacant land along the railway and constructed relatively decent houses. The fourth and last category was made up of people who were living in slums. These were more secure because the slum land was free and the government had not planned to use it shortly. These categories are still existent in Mumbai today. From the discussion of the categories of the homeless, it is clear that it can prove to be difficult to define what homelessness truly is (D’Souza 1).
Causes of homelessness
Homelessness is caused by a myriad of factors. In Mumbai the main contributor to homelessness is poverty. India is one of the poorest, countries in the world. This implies that a large fraction of its population lives in abject poverty and thus they are unable to pay for their housing needs. This explains the unbelievable number of homeless people in Mumbai that has existed for a lot of years. Mumbai also suffers from overpopulation. This implies that, even if its population was not that poor, it would still have a lot of homeless people because the houses which are there can never be adequate for the overpopulated city. In this city, many of these homeless people once had stable residences and jobs but the pressures of overpopulation and poverty, together with other socioeconomic factors make them lose their jobs and thus they become desperate having no means to sustain their financial demands on housing. There is also the problem of the lack of houses that are cheap enough for the bigger portion of the population. Most of the population earns amounts that are only adequate for meals and thus they can not be able to maintain the available unaffordable houses. It is thus true that not all homeless people are unemployed. Homelessness may also be caused by other factors like drug addiction, illnesses, wars, and lack of stable family relationships. In the case of Mumbai, the most prominent causes of homelessness among these causes are unhealthy relationships and illnesses. To expound on this consider a situation in which one is mentally ill. It will prove to be extremely difficult for this person to get medication as well as pay for housing. The person may even be unable to meet job-related demands and therefore they may end up losing their jobs. This will in turn make them unable to meet housing financial demands. Women may leave their homes to escape abusive husbands; children may also leave home to escape abusive people in their family. They may escape things like physical abuse, sexual abuse etcetera (“Home the Homeless” 1).
Problems of homelessness
Homelessness is a great problem in Mumbai. Although the homeless may not view it to be a major problem because they are adapted to it, the Mumbai society suffers a lot of problems that can be directly related to homelessness. Consider for example the contribution of the homeless to the sanitation problems in most parts of Mumbai. Since the homeless people occupy pavements and streets, they are bound to contribute to sanitation problems in the city. Another problem is the contribution these people have to the increase in crime in Mumbai. Since these homeless families live in abject poverty and they may even lack something to eat, they have given a massive contribution to the rise in the levels of crime in the city. Homelessness in Mumbai has had a massive contribution to the uncontrollable Indian population. Homeless couples on the streets do not have so many family planning choices and thus they make big families. On the other hand, homelessness has negative effects on the homeless person. These people are not normally protected due to their homelessness and thus their condition makes them vulnerable to mischievous people. They may be attacked, sometimes sexually assaulted, raped, and generally abused. Homelessness has a very significant influence on the health of its victims. Children may become sick and even die. Others may even suffer serious psychological problems due to exposure to hardships at a tender age. Other children may be abused, exposed to child labor or they can even become drug addicts. Homelessness also affects the union of members of a family. The hardships that are characteristic of homelessness may lead to animosity among family members. Children may also be alienated from their parents if there are relatives who can take care of them (“Poverty, Slum and Homelessness” 1).
Solutions for homelessness
Most practical solutions for reducing the levels of homelessness are related to the reduction of the structural problems that contribute to homelessness. The setting up of infrastructure to achieve the above-stated objective requires appropriate planning and funding and participation of all the key players. Thus community leaders must come up with a plan and seek the support of the government and private sponsors in solving such a problem. In the case of homelessness, precise information on the trends of homelessness and their implications must be obtained. The homeless must also be involved in the project. To effectively solve the problem of homelessness, this kind of project must address several issues. These include the establishment of a plan of how to avail affordable housing to the homeless, the plan should outline how supportive housing services are to be provided, and it should also outline how to deal with people who are kind of chronically homeless and the people who have the highest risk of being homeless in the foreseeable future. The plan should also outline a strategy for the prevention of future occurrences of homelessness. It should have a comprehensive health strategy to deal with the existent health situation and to phase out future occurrences of health problems related to homelessness. The homeless community will have a key role to play in this kind of project. Apart from their being involved in the project by contributing to its success where they can, they will have an obligation to shape their minds and prepare for a complete change. Without this kind of imitative, the efforts by the government and private sponsors may be put to waste. With the implementation of this kind of strategy, the occurrence of homelessness and its effects will be reduced. Its implementation in Mumbai will see a drastic change in the level of homelessness and a substantial decline in the effects that homelessness has on Mumbai society (“Solutions to Homelessness” 1).
Conclusion
As evidenced by the discussion above, homelessness and its causes form an extremely complex subject and thus it is impossible to completely solve the issue of homelessness. The problems that are associated with it are equally difficult to phase out and thus we can only try to mitigate the effect that homelessness has on society. It is therefore of the essence for governments to ensure that the factors that can lead to homelessness are closely monitored. In a case where there are large numbers of homeless people, the government should try as much as it can to contain the situation. The complexity of the issue of homelessness is compounded by the fact that an attempt to contain the situation may potentially worsen it. Consider for example the effect that philanthropy is likely to have on homelessness. If money is channeled to reach the homeless, it may be stolen before it reaches them (Bharadwaj 1). Consider a case in which the money reaches them. They will most probably waste it and return to their usual means of survival. Even if they are wise enough not to misuse it, their problems will warrant them to set priorities that do not take consideration of the future. This is because you can not plan the future when you are hungry. This means that their children will remain uneducated and they will eventually return to their earlier condition or even worse. Thus, as discussed, the best way to help the homeless is to set a political strategy that will slowly deal with the problem.
Works Cited
Bharadwaj, Abhishek. “Homeless in Mumbai”. 2007. Web.
D’Souza, Barnabe. “Demographic profile of Mumbai”. 2002. Web.
NEOCH. “Solutions to homelessness”. 2009. Web.
Slumdogs. “Home the Homeless.” 2010. Web.
The Wise Curve. “Poverty, Slum and Homelessness.” 2008. Web.