Book Review: Under Grey Smoggy Skies

Author: Harsh Mander

Official Book Cover

Our stratified society, where a large part of the population remains homeless, is the result of the neo-liberal model of development. In this growth model individuals are considered responsible for their own well-being while the state withdraws from this responsibility.

The book is a careful curation of the earlier published articles to make readers understand that this inequality has existed for a very long time. It is ironic that, being one of the world’s fastest-growing and largest economies, the state government has failed miserably to bring the homeless into the mainstream of society. This marginalized section, working on abysmally low wages, practically runs our daily life, yet always remains unrecognized and unprotected by both government and law.

The book presents the grim reality of our sharply polarized society, where the majority of the population is completely unaware of the destitutes. Chilling realities such as the preference of a homeless young boy to be covered with grime to protect himself from abusers or sleeping near the highways and risking their lungs from the fumes of vehicles just to keep mosquitoes away will shake readers to their core.

It also highlights how a daily bath, defecation, or access to restrooms is a luxury for them, as they have to pay for each of these facilities. The facts about how they prefer to forage food in garbage rather than to beg, use drugs to bear the harsh seasons or the excruciating pain inflicted by police, choosing to survive on bare minimum food instead of extending their hands for free food will deeply unsettle the readers.

The book subtly makes a point that to change the existing system, we have to be essentially in the system. It emphasizes taking legitimate means and being courageous to advocate for the homeless people.

The author has given practical solutions, which, if implemented, can be a huge step towards making their living conditions better. Providing hygienic night shelters, soup kitchens for nutritious food, free health services, affordable hostels for men and women accessible to the area of work, residential schools for children who are often born due to abuse of vulnerable women, and identifying willing caretakers for mentally ill or leprosy patients can really help them.

It also draws attention to the enduring spirit of this socially excluded group when they pool their meager money to feed someone more helpless than themselves, to provide a blanket, or to give a dignified funeral to an abandoned deceased.

The book hits hard and makes us question whether we really live in a democratic country or how we manage to turn away from those who are systematically trapped in the loop of homelessness. It ends with a powerful elegy and will make readers see how, as society and as citizens, we have failed the homeless in every possible way. It will stay with readers for a very very long time.

I highly recommend the book.