Title: Human rights issues of urban homeless in India: a study of Chandigarh

Authors: Namita Gupta; Monika Jaswal

Addresses: Centre for Human Rights and Duties, Emerging Areas Building, Panjab University, Chandigarh-160014, India ' Centre for Human Rights and Duties, Emerging Areas Building, Panjab University, Chandigarh-160014, India

Abstract: The right to adequate housing is a human rights issue globally. The international law recognises the right to adequate housing both as an essential component of the right to an adequate standard of living and as a distinct right. The violation of this right leads to the violation of other indivisible human rights. Homelessness has become a major human right challenge for an emerging economy like India. According to the Census 2011, India has more than 1.77 million homeless people, of which 52.95% are located in urban areas. Independent estimates, however, place the total number of homeless persons in India at about 2.3 million. The present study has been carried out in Chandigarh, the first planned city of modern India. The effort has been made to delve into the lives of urban homeless and to analyse the problems faced by them in the context of human rights.

Keywords: homelessness; human rights; right to housing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRCS.2020.108012

International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 2020 Vol.7 No.2, pp.126 - 137

Received: 01 Oct 2019
Accepted: 18 Oct 2019
Published online: 01 Jul 2020 *

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