Skip to main content

The Forgotten

My First day of internship...I am not sure how am i supposed to develop an action plan for the delhi government for the 200,000 estimated homeless in India, yet I am determined to try.

I land up at the office of Dil Se in Delhi and suddenly there is an unbelievable energy around me where I am both driving and being driven by the amazing people around me. We jump into a frenzy of discussions and reports done for the homeless over the past couple of years. We devour all the reports in the next 4-5 hours and have a basic idea in mind on how to do the homeless mapping yet something is missing...a grain of reality!!

Before I think it, we have hit the roads. After 8 straight hours at office we hit the Delhi roads at about 6:30 - 7 p.m. and head to the shelters in Hazrat Nizamuddin. The first shelter we visit is run SPYM and I am pleasantly surprised that the shelter is actually quite clean with decent shacks made out for the residents. I sit down to chat with some of the long time residents and as I relax on a not so clean mattress, stories start tumbling out on how things have just improved 5-6 months back after an NGO took over the shelter. The improvements that made all the difference: a courteous staff, cleanliness, personal lockers and a repaired TV. That's all they need and I wonder how can that be so difficult for one of the top 5 economies for the world!!

As I step out of the shelter, it is close to 9 and we decide to visit some homeless on the streets. We pass some very very narrow lanes in Nizamuddin where am sure none of us will ever venture and reach a clearing where there is a settlement of about 200 homeless people. As we sit talking we hear stories of police harassment, people embezzling them in name of medicine, long waits for ration cards, closed PDS shops, how in commonwealth they were pushed away from roads into areas where they cant be seen...and I sit listening in an unreal mode as I have never encountered such stark reality. They also have dreams, they also have aspirations...but we don't want to listen, it is much more convenient to brush them under the carpet...after all they are not even a vote bank as they have no id's of any form!!

Suddenly I realize it is 11 p.m. and time to leave...my first day at internship just got over!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Dystopia that is Uttar Pradesh

 How willful ignorance and distortion of facts is endangering millions in rural Uttar Pradesh Babloo Yadav’s brother-in-law died a few days ago. When the author inquired about the cause, the pained reply was, “Pata nahin bhaiya, bukhar tha”. Doctor kuch bata nahin paye,” roughly translates to, “We don’t know, he had a fever, the doctors could not diagnose.” This is a pattern that is repeating in millions of homes across rural Uttar Pradesh where people are supposedly dying of fever, typhoid, pneumonia, or whatever else they choose to assume in the absence of testing and clear diagnosis.  A state of dystopia is characterized by unimaginable suffering, totalitarianism, willful ignorance of the rulers towards the misery of their subjects, and distortion of facts to hide reality. Now let us examine whether Uttar Pradesh meets these dystopian parameters. Unimaginable Suffering The images of bodies floating in rivers in Uttar Pradesh across multiple districts, cremation grounds runn...
Post a Comment
Read more

The human tragedy that is the National Register of Citizens (India)

In most countries across the world, a residence record spanning nearly 50 years, a record of service to the society in various capacities such as being a veteran, regular tax filing for decades, law-abiding behaviour etc. should be more than enough to prove citizenship, NOT in India though. A career soldier , a serving doctor , a mother who is deemed an Indian citizen but her daughters are not , a brother whose real brother is a citizen but he is an illegal immigrant , a sitting member of Legislative Assembly  in Assam excluded and even an ex President's family being omitted are some of the stories emanating from the unending human tragedy that is the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in Assam. Authorities in the northeastern state of Assam have published a citizenship list that aims to identify genuine citizens and seeks to exclude "Bangladeshi immigrants". "Bangladeshi immigrants" are defined as all those who are unable to provide documentary ...
1 comment
Read more

The Case For Printing More Money & Distributing It!

What I will argue for in this article is quite unorthodox and contrary to the conventional economic arguments that we are used to. I propose that in order to tide over the COVID 19 crisis and kick start the economy; the government should consider printing money and transferring the equivalent amount directly into the thirty crore Jan Dhan accounts. This will work to seamlessly ensure that the money reaches the masses while acting as a stimulant to revive demand. In economic terms, we call it monetizing the fiscal deficit that is a red herring in traditional economic logic, as most economists would rightly argue against printing money to finance deficits, citing inflation as a major concern.  The reason is that printing more money doesn’t increase economic output – it only increases the amount of cash circulating in the economy. If more money is printed, consumers are able to demand more goods, but if firms have still the same amount of goods, they will respond by putting up p...
1 comment
Read more