Life under a Delhi flyover: how one homeless family endures the city’s extreme heat
SkimNews Take
The flyover, a piece of infrastructure designed to facilitate movement, inadvertently becomes a critical, albeit inadequate, shelter for the city's most vulnerable during extreme weather events.
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- Delhi recorded daytime highs of 43 °C and nighttime lows near 32.4 °C, with the warmest May night in 14 years.
- Chandni Singh, a lead author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that homelessness amplifies heat exposure by limiting access to food, water, and healthcare.
- Centre for Holistic Development reported that 192 homeless people died over a nine‑day heatwave in Delhi last summer.
- Shahida, a 20‑year‑old mother, lives with her family of ten under a Delhi flyover, sleeping in a pink mosquito‑net tent beside her nine‑month‑old daughter Jannat.
- Delhi flyover offers limited shade but traps heat, and police only intervene when VIPs pass, leaving the family exposed to suffocating temperatures by noon.
Why it matters: Delhi's heatwave kills hundreds of homeless while families like Shahida's survive under inadequate shade, highlighting the urgent need for policy and shelter interventions to protect the city's most vulnerable.
