Speech On Homelessness In Delhi

We, architects have our own aesthetical sensibilities, but, there is beauty beyond our set standards of aesthetics. The slums and shanties that we perceive as dirty patches to our cities, have a beauty too, the beauty of struggle, survival and spirit.

"For three years that used to be my bedroom and this was the kitchen, we had five toilets and our shop was on the street," says Meena who lived on the streets of Delhi after being evicted in 2008. The bedroom she pointed at, was a parking lot where cars were being replaced by unkempt jute sacks, the kitchen was a dingy pavement where a woman in a rugged saree was cooking and the toilet was a clogged public one. Her shop, was the traffic light where she ran barefoot on the burning tar, selling newspapers.

Winning the bid in the year 2003 for the Common Wealth Games-2010 exacerbatedthe situation of homelessness in Delhi. This large-scale sporting event, improved investments, boosted tourism and strengthened the infrastructure, but it also scarred the city with negative social legacies. Theserange from loss of livelihoodsand loss of life savings invested in small businesses and in building shanties, making the most marginalized population even more vulnerable, and amounting to human rights violation. While large scale financial irregularities in the games were given considerable attention, the human and social impact was largely