By conservative estimates, Delhi has a homeless population of around 100,000 people. The city, once a sleepy bureaucratic backwater compared to glittery Mumbai, is now an island of ostentatious wealth floating on a sea of medieval squalor. Slum clearances jar with an astronomic and ever-rising real-estate prices.
Constant migration has put huge strain on the city's limited housing and ever increasing numbers of migrant labourers compete for a limited number of jobs and space....
more »By conservative estimates, Delhi has a homeless population of around 100,000 people. The city, once a sleepy bureaucratic backwater compared to glittery Mumbai, is now an island of ostentatious wealth floating on a sea of medieval squalor. Slum clearances jar with an astronomic and ever-rising real-estate prices.
Constant migration has put huge strain on the city's limited housing and ever increasing numbers of migrant labourers compete for a limited number of jobs and space. Those that for the most part make the city function are often the ones who, come nightfall, sleep on its streets. Indeed, Delhi is viciously segregated between those that have wealth and those that produce it, and slipping through the very limited safety net of society is a constant Dickensian fear.
This work, together with a companion piece Stuart photographed about the prevalence of mental illness in the city, is an attempt to examine the darker side of Delhi's economic miracle. The people that he worked with for the most part had families, jobs and responsibilities. What they didn't have was somewhere to live. Some slept and survived at the sides of roads collecting waste to sell - others lived in shelters and held down office jobs. All wanted something better for their children in a cruel city.
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