Homelessness — The Pigeon Mother Who Tore My Heart

Recently when shifting home to Airoli, Navi Mumbai I was stuck in a queer situation.

We were moving out of a rented apartment and were to hand it over squeaky clean. But a surprise awaited me. In the utility area, unbeknownst to us, pigeon mom was hatching two eggs.

The easy option was just to throw the eggs away — there would be no resistance, the job would be done, and the owner would be happy to get a clean house. But many things changed for us since we adopted Holly seven years ago, and then Bolt joined. I could somehow sense the consequent pain of the mom and guilt of mine.

We had a couple of days, so I cleaned up the space with eggs aside (one got slightly damaged in the process), and put them back on the cardboard box (but the straw structure was missing). But while the mom remained on guard, she did not continue hatching (maybe the absence of the environment.

We wrote to the owner whether we could leave the eggs as it is, but there was no response. But I felt a tremendous sense of guilt. I remember going back multiple times to check, and every time it was the same scene — the two eggs on the floor and a forlorn mother on the aisle.

In retrospect, the situation somewhat amused me. I am feeling emotional about a homeless bird, but I scarcely care about homeless people. Is that not a moral contradiction?

Around a decade back, we as a family stayed close to the Victoria Terminus Mumbai and took a walk in the bylanes late at night. I was aghast at finding numerous people deep in sleep on the street, entire families with all their belongings. I felt concerns, but I did not feel the same pangs that I felt in Airoli.

Now, none of us who live in urban India can be blind to homeless on the streets. I have seen thousands of them in late-night Kolkata drive, for example. For a large part of my life, I just did not even bother — yes, they are poor, so here they are.

Mumbai streets at least forced me to see it up, close, and personal. But still, it was an urban issue for me. But only when I dispossessed a bird family of its above, the human in me kicked it.

Homelessness is a global problem. It is defined as not having a suitable place of abode, which one can call as their own. But if we look at the estimated number of homeless in India — 1.7 million, we can be sure that either the number is underreported, or the definition is leaky. For example, if a family of 5+ members stays in a 100 ft space, is this home? Or if there is a place to put one’s head under, but 50 people share a toilet, is that a home either? I am not sure how the definition maps.

Why are people homeless? Well for a long I thought it was an urban issue. When the rural poor migrate to the cities for a better living, surely they will lack the resources to have a proper dwelling. Add to this the space constraints in any city. The visions of gargantuan urban slums are a testimony to that.

Surprisingly, 52% of the homeless are in rural India, where space is relatively more abundant. So clearly there are a large number of people who just have the financial capacity to have a home.

Some may say, the problem has been largely resolved by Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana has solved a large part of the problem. I agree, but we should remember that it does not cover land acquisition. And how many India can afford to have a piece of land?

The greatest takeaway for me from the forlorn, defeated pigeon mother is another aspect that we normally celebrate, the evictions.

While the illegal structures of the rich and powerful are almost always “regularized” (well the suspension of demolition in Bengaluru post the floods is too fresh in our memories), there is a sense of triumph of law and order in case the demolition of “illegal” shanties.

Rarely do we think that the folks are there in the slums as they can’t afford the cost of a formal residence, as well as the travel to the workplace if they stay far away. And these makeshift spaces are arranged by the rent-seeking local economy, which ironically also leads when the land value increases and is eyed for new properties, or (increasingly) there is a political benefit in making the “othering” more lethal.

The evictions always happen with so-called law on its side (which sadly turns into a lamb in the right situations), often with a court order, and made a spectacle of the state with a large number of police and municipal workers. There are at times promises of resettlement (though this is rarer now, with politicians using it increasingly as a retribution to a section of people, to make their base happy).

Rarely do we feel what the people, who are already on the margins and underserved, and who have lived always with a fear of being pushed aside while social sharks extract tolls from them, feel.

I am sure that they feel scared, helpless, anxious, and on top of all defeated in front of the powerful state.

Maybe be pigeon mother felt the same in front of me. Or am I imagining too much?