Zainat Bi travelled hundreds of kilometres when she was not yet 20, and her late husband Sarwar Khan decided there was no future for them in native Tiruppattur, Vellore district, Tamil Nadu. Zainat has hawked bananas, had four children, married off two girls, saw her husband and a son die, and was witness to both pavements of the bylane gradually fill with ‘homes’ like hers. Dreams take wing and die on the edges of a public road. Right to shelter is inherent in the Constitution, India is a signatory to the Istanbul Charter of 1996 committing to improve the living conditions of the underprivileged.
India is still home to 13 million homeless, not including the millions displaced by development projects in 58 years. They make their shelters in water pipes, at bus stops, on railway platforms, in entrance lobbies of old buildings, on shop floors, restaurant tables, in rickshaws and taxis, sometimes even on trees.
