In India, the city of riches — Chandigarh has the highest proportion of homeless people in its total population. The urban city of Chandigarh spreading over an area of 114 sq. km has 4,139 homeless people including 3,837 males and 302 females, revealed the recently released 2011 census data on homeless population.
Chandigarh has 0.39 percentage of homeless in its total population followed by 0.30 percent in Daman & Diu, 0.29 percent in Dadra & Nagar Haveli, 0.28 in Delhi, 0.26 in Rajasthan. Kerala has the lowest percentage of 0.04 homeless people in its total population. The city has recorded a decadal growth rate of 54.2 percent in homeless population. In 2001, the houseless population was nearly 2680.
In 2011 census, a total of 868 houseless households were registered in Chandigarh. It includes 4,133 houseless people in urban and only 6 homeless in rural areas of Chandigarh. Every day, a large number of people migrate to Chandigarh in search of job opportunities. While some settle in informal settlements, other end up being homeless in this expensive city. The enumeration of houseless population was conducted by the census teams during the night of February 28 in 2011. All the constituted teams had visited markets, station, bus stands, shelters, under the flyover premises of temples, gurdwaras, churches and mosques, labour living adjacent to buildings under construction and counted the homeless. According to census 2011, the total population of Chandigarh was 10,55,450 people, including 5,80,663 males and 4,74,787 females. The city has 97.25 per cent population living in urban areas and 2.74 per cent living in rural areas. The sex ratio in the city was 818 females per 1,000 males and the sex ratio between 0 and 6 years age group in the urban areas of Chandigarh stands at 822 females per 1,000 males. The data stated that Chandigarh has 2,41,173 households, including 7,140 rural and 2,34,033 urban. The city’s population includes 19,90,896 Scheduled Caste, including 1,06,358 males and 92,730 females. In 2011 census, Chandigarh registered slum population of 95,135, including 53,340 males and 41,795 females.