Unseen and Unheard

They generally go unseen and completely go unheard. Sometimes under the flyover or mostly on the pavements, they are exposed to risk 24*7 and yet they continue to live on the streets. They are helpless, poor and most vulnerable part of our society who is forced to live on the streets because they do not have homes to live in. They do not have roofs to cover their heads and therefore are compelled to suffer extreme climatic conditions. They just not lack basic protection but also suffer the neglect by the society and the authorities.

Few months back, Supreme Court had directed the northern Indian states namely Punjab, UP, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh governments to build shelter homes for homeless people before the onset of the winter season. The apex court had also warned the states of harsh consequences in case it fails to do the same. Supreme Court deserves all appreciation for the step taken. Now it is up to the state governments to responsibly follow the directions given as they have got enough time to arrange for such homeless people.

I remind of Subhash Kapoor’s National award winning film ‘Jolly LLB’ which basically focussed on the corruption present in our judicial system but the story revolves around hit and run case and talks about a whole lot of people living on pavements. Jolly played by Actor Arshad Warsi asked in the courtroom that who are these people? Where have they come from? What are they doing in our country? If they are living in our country then they deserve right to justice. Similarly they also deserve ‘Right to shelter’ because they are very much part of our country and the Supreme court had also stressed it by saying it is a fundamental right and therefore being a welfare state it becomes all the more important for government to provide them shelter homes.

I really hope that the government with its ‘Vikas agenda’ will also consider the homelessness of such people and will make sensible policies to end this phenomenon.