Thousands of homeless people celebrate the festival as just another day
At a time when everyone is busy buying sweets, clothes and crackers for Diwali, eight-year-old Gulshan and his family plan to light one single diya.
Gulshan is among the thousands of homeless people who live in porta cabins and shelters — provided by the government and managed with the help of NGOs across the Capital. Though it is largely believed that around one per cent of Delhi’s 18 million people are homeless, estimates differ.
According to the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP), there were about 56,000 homeless in Delhi in 2014. However, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board – the agency tasked with providing shelter to people without a roof on their heads – pegged the number at 16,760 during the same year. The homeless stay in 194 shelters, which include 112 porta cabins. For most of them, festivals are just another day. Shiv, a 26-year-old unemployed man who lives in a shelter at Lodhi Colony, said: “What is the meaning of a festival for us? It will be like any other day. Yes, some of us do light lamps and dolakshmi puja, but we do not have the money to buy clothes and crackers.”
Around 80 men and women, who include rickshaw-pullers, tea-sellers and labourers, live in the two cabins in Lodhi Colony at night.
Iqbal, another resident at the shelter, said: “We do not do puja, but there is a Hindu family living here that performs a lakshmi puja every year. We light a lamp and my children like to see firecrackers.”
In another porta cabin inside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) campus, Janaki, is planning to decorate the place with balloons and ribbons.
The shelter is generally over-crowded in winters with around 400 people sleeping here.
“We do not have money to buy clothes and sweets; so this is how we will celebrate. Last year, the residents cooked special food. This year also we will try to cook something special,” said Janaki, who has been living in the porta cabin at AIIMS since the last two years.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, there were about 56,000 homeless in Delhi in 2014
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