“I have been living on the streets in Tagore Garden, Delhi, with my wife and five children, for several years. When the lockdown began, we did not have any savings or food stored. We heard that the police was forcibly taking homeless persons on the streets to shelters. We tried to look for food around us, but no shop was open. My wife took my children along with her to search for food. It has been eight days and she has not returned. I have been looking for my family all across the city on foot, but I haven’t been able to find them. Sometimes NGOs or the police give me food. But I am scared to approach the authorities for help. I fear that they may also send me to a shelter and then I won’t be able to look for my family.”
The Housing and Land Rights Network spoke to Hasan in April 2020 at Chilla Village, Delhi. We put out an alert in all homeless shelters to trace his family. But we have not been able to locate him since then to know if and when he was able to reunite with his family.
— Hasan [New Delhi, India]
The Global Homelessness Action is an international digital initiative that provides people experiencing homelessness the opportunity to collectively claim their right to housing and demand urgent action from governments through video, audio, and written testimonies. Learn more at maketheshift.org/homelessnessaction.
