Many arrived in the capital hoping for work. They stay back after dreams collapse, left with no roof over their heads. Some are alone. Others are with families. All try to carve out a life on concrete.
Government efforts like the Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE) and the National Urban Livelihood Mission’s Shelter for Urban Homeless (SUH) promised change. Yet the numbers sleeping rough say otherwise.
A city’s count, a city’s gap
A major count conducted in August 2024 revealed that 1,56,369 people were sleeping on the streets between 11pm and 5.30am. The city’s estimated homeless population is over 3,00,000, according to Dr Indu Prakash Singh, member of the State Level Shelter Monitoring Committee (SLSMC).
“The current shelters are not enough,” said Dr Singh told TOI. “Delhi has more shelters than many cities in the world. Govt also provides food and medicines at the shelters. But, there are not enough of them, and many people still sleep outside.”
Dr Singh noted that despite a decade since the launch of the SUH scheme, shelter provision is still 90% below the requirement set by the Master Plan for Delhi 2021.
Life on the pavement
The city’s footpaths double up as kitchens. Boundary grills become clotheslines. The underside of flyovers serve as bedrooms. Entire families survive this way—elderly people, disabled individuals, pregnant women and children alike.“Remove poverty, bring jobs everywhere, and homelessness will disappear,” said Dr Singh. “The tragedy of this country is that the poor are persecuted and not supported. If poverty schemes truly worked, we wouldn’t be here discussing this.”
He added, “Homelessness isn’t the issue. The lack of work is. The real problem is a govt deficit — not of money, but of care and commitment.”
Shelters that empty by morning
Despite government funding and court directives, shelters often stand underused or overwhelmed. A senior Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) official explained, “The court has assigned us responsibility, but the challenge remains. Many homeless people return to the streets despite food and shelter. Some families stay for decades, others never come. We rescue at least 40–50 people daily. They use the night shelters but leave by morning. We urge donors to give to shelters…. We’ve proposed skill-based programmes for employment.”
He said the issue was not just infrastructure. “The lack of manpower (at the shelters) is a big issue. The key is creating jobs in home states to reduce migration to Delhi.”
Supreme Court steps in
In February 2025, during a hearing on urban homelessness, the Supreme Court posed a pointed question: should jobs take precedence over handouts?
While recognising the urgency of shelter, the court asked for a balance in welfare policies. It challenged whether one-time benefits were sustainable, especially when structural gaps in employment and housing remained.
The BJP, ahead of its election promises, had pledged to remove homelessness entirely if it formed the government. Yet realities on the ground suggest long-term plans remain absent.
Gaps in policy and politics
According to Dr Singh, DUSIB—primarily an engineering body—has been burdened with social responsibilities that should fall under welfare departments. “Govt must come up with a holistic policy on this — at central and state levels,” he said.
The Centre for Holistic Development (CHD) also believes that short-term schemes aren’t enough.
Sunil Kumar Aledia, executive director of CHD, said: “The cityscape may be important, but addressing the problem of homelessness is also crucial.” He stressed the need for structured efforts: “Long-term planning, like the five-year plans we had earlier. There were discussions about housing rights for the homeless then…. We need at least five years of dedicated effort, especially for housing policies. Marginalised sections can contribute to the Smart City projects too.”
He added, “Homeless people would have to be brought to the mainstream.”
What locals see, what they want
Suchita Kacker Meena, a Delhi resident, offered a citizen’s perspective. “Sustainable solutions to homelessness lie in building more shelters, creating job opportunities and ensuring effective implementation of rehabilitation programmes.”
This sentiment is echoed in many neighbourhoods where the homeless have become part of the local landscape—visible but largely ignored.
While there are schemes, food vans, medicines, and occasional rescue drives, the core issue remains unaddressed—how does a city care for those it sees every day but rarely notices?
With half the required shelters missing and few clear roadmaps ahead, Delhi’s homeless continue to survive in fragments—half-visible in crowded streets and half-forgotten in public plans.
(With inputs from TOI)