On the road…again!!!
Afghanistan to Zambia
Chronicles of a Footloose Forester
By Dick Pellek

The Two Lakh Homeless of Bombay

A chronicle about a strange city after dark, remembered from the window seat of a public bus at night, and daydreamed after a passage of 55 years…well it may be disbelieved.  The observer who calls himself the Footloose Forester may get challenges about the facts, if it were possible to present facts, but Bombay isn’t there anymore. That might be the first line of defense.  As for the two-lakh homeless who slept on the streets at night, the next reaction might be in the form of a question…who were those two-lakh people mentioned in the story?

In India, residents who live there understand that a lakh represents 100,000, so two lakh is not about two homeless people, but 200,000 homeless people who nightly slept on public sidewalks, in front of banks, commercial buildings, and shuttered up-scale shops in the very heart of Bombay.  The year was 1965, thus the estimates should not be challenged after the passage of so many years.  And the Footloose Forester acknowledges that he estimated the numbers, by counting in groups of 10, as is common practice in doing wildlife herd size tallies.  By any stretch of the imagination, the numbers were low because he knew full well that what he was seeing was only a small sector of the bus route that went through the heart of Bombay.  The actual numbers of homeless were probably not available for public consumption, given the inability of city authorities to prevent or even restrict sleeping on the streets at night.

Travelers in that part of the world often took personal bedding with them, so frequent was it to forgo hotels due to a cost they could not afford, or to the severe shortage of hotel rooms, in general, for people who lived below middle-class status.  By the way, The Footloose Forester had his own bedding, known as a bister, and slept on the sidewalk in front the central train station in Karachi, Pakistan and for two weeks on the floor of an empty tea warehouse there.  Thank You, Brooke Bond Tea for your hospitality.

Homelessness is a problem in many countries and is a national embarrassment to even talk about.   While many major cities face the problem of potential homelessness, several Asian cities with generally warm climates are candidates for poor migrants seeking employment.  Authorities know the severity of the public health and safety issues but never have been able to stamp out homelessness.

Thanks to AI, a very recent reference to the status of homelessness in Bombay, now known as Mumbai, brings an updated status.  Since it is not possible to verify everything committed to print, even the AI blog below could be challenged. Nonetheless, the Copilot AI account acknowledges that thousands of people still sleep within the heart of a bustling city.

Mumbai, a city that never sleeps, is home to a vibrant tapestry of life, where every street corner tells a story. Among these are the tales of resilience and survival of over 57,000 homeless individuals who find solace under the flickering streetlights. Their lives intertwine with the city's rhythm, contributing as laborers, helpers, and waste pickers, embodying the spirit of Mumbai's informal economy. Despite the challenges they face, from the monsoon's wrath to the struggle for dignity, their perseverance is a testament to the human spirit's indomitable will. Efforts to improve their conditions are ongoing, with initiatives to build shelters and provide better living standards, reflecting a city in motion towards a more inclusive future.

India has sometimes been deemed as an ungovernable country, partly due to the paradoxical richness and diversity of its ethic composition. There are scores of languages in India and the patrimonial pride of each one has long ago decreed that some regional languages be represented in meaningful ways, such as being prominent on paper currency.  For example, the humble One Rupee Note from 1965 displayed the words One Rupee in eleven languages.