Introduction

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines a ‘homeless’, as a person who doesn’t live in a permanent house due to a lack of required housing, safety, and availability. According to the 2011 census, 1.77 million people were homeless in India, which made up 0.15% of the total population. The actual number was more than this data. Furthermore, a high proportion of the homeless are mentally ill or children. However, recent trends show that the existence of multidimensional poverty is declining, in fact in 2020, the number has gone down to 6 percent from 54.7 percent at the time of independence.
Reasons for homelessness

Housing

India has a shortage of over 20 million houses. Families migrating to urban areas from rural areas due to loss of property, search for employment, and better opportunities are often left homeless because of high rents (a basic apartment costs around Rs. 3000) and non-availability of houses to accommodate them. Faced with homelessness, these migrants try to create shelter from cardboard, tin, plastic, and wood.
In some other cases, people resort to dwelling in slums. In India, 78 million people live in such slums, tenements, and makeshift houses and account for 17% of the world’s slum-dwelling population. The number of slum dwellers has doubled since the last two decades.

The Causes of Homelessness

Homelessness is an outcome of the complex interplay of structural factors, systemic failures and individual circumstances (Gaetz, Donaldson, Richter, & Gulliver, 2013):

Structural factors are where the cost of living has increased but without an adequate increase in income, particularly for those in the lower income brackets or those on social assistance.

Systemic failures occur when people fall between the cracks of a country’s systems of care. For example, when people are discharged from hospitals or correctional facilities into emergency shelters or when youth transition out of the child welfare system.

Personal circumstances may come into play when individuals and families experience catastrophic events such as job loss, illness or a house fire. Traumatic events or health problems can add to the risk of becoming homeless when housing or income is in short supply.

Family violence and conflict, particularly for women, children and youth, may push individuals to flee their homes in order to protect themselves

Sunday, November 14, 2021

Violence against women

One of the most widespread violations of human rights

Violence against women and girls takes many different forms, including domestic violence, sexual assault and harassment, child, early and forced marriage, sex trafficking, so called ‘honor’ crimes and female genital mutilation. It is rooted in the gender inequality that women face throughout their lives from childhood through to old age.

Many perpetrators believe that violence toward women and girls is normal or appropriate behavior, supported by society. They feel that they can commit violence without disapproval.

It is one of the most widespread violations of human rights and has long-term devastating effects on the lives of women, their communities and wider society. It is time to say ‘enough is enough’. We want violence against women to end.

Violence on a massive scale

35 percent of women will experience violence at the hands of their current or former partners in their lifetime, up to 70 percent according to some national studies.
Around 650 million women alive today were married as children. Of those women, more than one in three got married before 15.
200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation - the majority of girls are cut before the age of five.
Women and girls together account for 71 percent of all human trafficking victims detected globally, with girls representing nearly three out of every four trafficked children.

In rural areas, the bride, usually belonging to a poor household, is unable to meet the groom’s high demand for the dowry money. They fail to fulfill and pay the amount the groom asks for. In such cases, often, the bride falls victim to verbal and physical abuse of the groom. The woman is beaten, abused, and regularly molested, for her family’s incapability to fulfill the dowry. Dowry deaths are mostly seen in the rural parts of India and form an accountable part of the crimes committed against women.

Violence against women typically means the crimes committed against women of any age, caste, and creed. The crimes can be of any kind; usually, they include murders, abuse, molestation, rape, and infanticide. The number of crimes committed against women in India keeps rising every year. In 2012, the crimes against women in India accounted for 6.4%, which meant in an average within three minutes, a woman fell victim to violence.

The crimes against women in India take several forms. Mostly, these crimes result in lifelong trauma or death. Dowry deaths are one such example of a crime committed against Indian women. According to the age-old Indian tradition, the bride’s family is supposed to reward the groom with a considerable sum of money; this is the concept of dowry.

Himanshu Yadav

B.tech cse