Without Walls: An exhibition on Mumbai's homeless

Meera is 36 years old and has lived near JJ Hospital for all her life You can hear her tell you that the streets are ldquowhere our parents birthed us and thatrsquos where we stayed and grew uprdquo in an audio story that hangs on the wall of Studio X a collaborative space for engaging with urban issues through design and research housed in Kitab Mahal FortSangeeta 32 was born near Mumbai Central Station and continues to live there Her story and those of homeless women across the city is part of the exhibition PicBind CollectiveHer testimonial and those of six more homeless women are played on loop at Without Walls An investigation into the lives of Mumbairsquos homeless families starting today Visitors are offered a glimpse of the living conditions and the working lives of the homeless in the city through maps audio stories and photographsRajeev Thakker curator Studio X PicPradeep DhivarCurated by Studio X and Megapolis an urban lab experimenting with ideas for better cities with contributions from NGO Pehchan and photography collective BIND the exhibit hopes to debunk some myths oft associated with homelessnessMeera 36 lives near Mumbai Central for 22 years ldquoIf wersquore born here where will we go even if you chase us away Where our parents birthed us thatrsquos where wersquove stayed and grown up thatrsquos where we birthed our children too and theyrsquove grown up too Where else should we gordquoTalking about the large number of women who feature in the photographs Carlin Carr urban researcher and founder of Megapolis says ldquoWe want people to think differently about the homeless in the city who are not just lsquosingle male migrantsrsquo There are so many women and children living on the streets Safety is a challenge for themrdquoParvathi 40 lives near Kamathipura for 40 years ldquoOne of my daughtershellip Even now she has to take medicines worth 500 rupees per month But sometimes she takes less of it like maybe one that is 200 rupees or 100 rupees Sometimes 50 rupeesrdquoWhile the exhibition picks pincodeless residents across Mumbai one of the areas it chooses to examine closely is Bodyguard Lane in Mumbai Central where fencing divides the manicured turf of the Willingdon Golf Club and a stretch of makeshift tarpaulin shelters ldquoWe chose this area for the stark contrast between the club and the streetrdquo said Rajeev Thakker curatorThree generations on the street Maternal grandmother Radhi 80 mother Lali 40 Sonia 17Thakker and his team have replicated a part of these homes through a map calling out to the unusual ways that the homeless have claimed the streets For instance lsquoa chicken cage brought for R10 from the market to store coloured chickenrsquo coexists with identity proofs and election cards that lie secretly tucked under sacks of clothes so that they arenrsquot stolenVikram studies under the street lights His parents want to ensure he gets an education that will allow him a different life from theirsThakker differentiates the terms lsquopavement dwellerrsquo and lsquohomelessrsquo explaining that the former do not have access to infrastructure while the homeless makes a space habitable ldquoHomelessness is a chronic problem in Mumbai and a stigmatized situationrdquo Carr adds that unlike Delhi where seasonal migrations from villages is common Mumbai is home to the ldquopermanently homelessrdquoBrijesh Arya founder of Pehchan one of only a couple of NGOs working on homelessness in the city meets with homeless women leadersIn numbersA study by BUILD found that 96 per cent of homeless families in Mumbai have lived on the streets for more than five years 58 per cent have done so for more than 20 years The 2011 Census reports that Mumbai has 57416 homeless persons activists estimate the real size of the population to range from 150000 to as high as 300000