NEW DELHI: From afar, it looks like a pile of tattered bedding and worn mattresses on a footpath. But then a face emerges from the bundle, followed by four more. All are homeless people huddled desperately to warm themselves in the biting cold of a Delhi winter.
Beneath these worn blankets lie stories of survival, territory and the unwritten codes of street life, the brutality of which was recently highlighted in central Delhi’s Paharganj, where a man was killed with a stone in a fight over sleeping space on the footpath.
In conversations with homeless individuals sleeping on footpaths in Paharganj, near Nigambodh Ghat and at Yamuna Bazaar near the old Hanuman Mandir, a complex story of survival emerges. “I’ve been on these streets for 25 years since I was 10 years old,” said Ram Gopal, who left Uttar Pradesh after his parents’ death. “I don’t even remember how it feels to sleep anywhere except on this hard footpath. In the decades I have been here in Paharganj, I have seen big fights, even murders over something sleeping on the footpath. But then, it is after all one’s resting place after a tiring day.”
Ratan Lal knows all about such a life. While his family lives safely in a Rajasthan village, he has spent half a century on Delhi’s streets, sleeping behind his cart every night. Sometimes, his family wants to come to Delhi, but he dissuades them for their own safety. “I sometimes think of staying in the night shelters but things are worse there. We are rehdiwalas (cart pullers), and often our rehdis get stolen. The only way to prevent that is by sleeping right next to them on the road where we park them.”
Ajay Rai, 52, from Bihar, is also clear. “The night shelters have their own politics. They’re overcrowded, and people fight violently for a chance to sleep inside. Even on footpaths, certain spots are better than others and there are fights for these.”
Over time, an unwritten code and invisible boundaries mark sleeping territories. “We know our places,” shrugged Shaila, 30, from West Bengal, who sleeps on the footpath near the old Hanuman temple. “Would you like someone staying in your home uninvited? I’ve seen young men pull out blades to protect their small space on the footpath – it’s the only home they’ve known since birth.”
Shaila added, “Many of us are lucky enough to have stray dogs staying with us. They protect us through the night and allow no one to bother us.”
A daily wage labourer voiced the basic needs of the homeless community: “We know the night shelters are full, we know we can’t set up a jhuggi anywhere and we know we don’t have money for a pucca makaan. So, knowing this, masks and blankets are all that we need to fight the cold and dust. The noise of the traffic doesn’t bother us after a point — we are so tired after a day’s labour that we just want to crash, no matter how hard the footpath, how dirty the road or how loud the traffic.”
The men sleeping near Nigambodh Ghat said they chose the spot where the road makes a U-turn for a simple reason: it’s hidden, dark and cold — just the kind of place few know about and fewer still dare to enter. Said 25-year-old Vishal: “On this small patch, we have nothing but each other. Nobody can see us here, and that’s important. We’ve had some pretty terrifying experiences in the past. The crowded footpaths? Too risky. At least here, in the shadows, no one’s going to fight us for space. Sure, speeding cars and dangerous U-turns can make life nerve-wracking too but at least we’re not fighting over space. This is ours — just a place to crash for a few hours before we head to work at dawn and then slump down again late at night.”
