Delhi’s homeless brace for plunging temperatures as volunteers find ‘up to 10 bodies a day’ in cold snap

Freezing fronts present an increasingly common and deadly threat to the tens of thousands who sleep on Delhi’s streets. Stuti Mishra reports from a bitter night in the Indian capital

Hundreds of homeless people sleep under a flyover in central Delhi as the mercury drops to 3C (Stuti Mishra/The Independent)

As midnight approaches and shops close in Old Delhi’s bustling markets, hundreds of homeless begin to lay down thin mattresses or plastic sheets on the dusty pavement as they brace for a long night during a lethal cold snap.

The street in this part of the Indian capital, just behind the historic Turkman Gate entrance to the old city, is lined with rough sleepers as far as the eye can see, some huddled close to each other for warmth and some covering themselves in whatever piece of cloth or plastic they could find. A warm blanket, they say, is a luxury here.

It is also just a few steps away from several of the biggest government-run homeless shelters in the capital region, but many of these rough sleepers have been turned away due to a chronic shortage of beds.