Breaking the Wall – Urban Homeless Campaign

In one of the biggest pushes to highlight the rights and struggles of the homeless people in Chennai, one India’s rapidly growing metros and the capital of Tamil Nadu, saw a visibility campaign targeted at the middle class and youth to enlist support for policy demands for rights and access to entitlements for the homeless people.

Chennai has over 40,000 children, men and women who live on its streets.  The administration and society at large responds to this social group with apathy and often disdain.  Shrouded in misconception and stigma, they are seen as problem and get little or no support in their struggle for identity and rights.

With growing poverty and shrinking livelihoods, more and more people and even entire families are being forced to come to cities in search of means of survival.  But the city, while benefiting from backbreaking, has little to offer other than a hand-to-mouth means of survival.

The campaign, evocatively titled the Wall-Street Campaign, used the walls in some high footfall localities of the city to show solidarity, attracted people from all walks of life to see the homeless people in a new light and as fellow citizens with the same rights as anyone with access to home and economic opportunities. ActionAid India decided on the idea based on its several years of engagement with the issue of homelessness and urban poverty in the state and across the nations.

Sensitizing the media

One of the key messages and campaign objectives of the campaign was to break invisibility and stigma around the homeless people by highlighting their rights and their everyday struggles.

With the state’s leading news channel and a popular radio station onboard, the campaign drew attention of the middle classes and the state authorities.

The campaign also relied on messages that busted myths about homeless people like a majority of homeless engage in back-breaking hard work providing vital services which keep the city functional.  Also that homeless people are not just individuals without any possessions and roofs over their heads.

Expressing Solidarity

The idea and planning of the campaign was actively taken forward by a group of communications students. Backed with experience of partnering struggles of urban poor and homeless, the group managed to bring amazing energy to the campaign.

Across five high visibility areas of the city, events were organised to allow a cross section of Chennai residents to leave their hand prints on walls to express solidarity with the struggle for the rights of the homeless people. The homeless community and representatives from urban poor social group also took part in the events.

To draw in the media and an audience for advocacy stunts at their events, a slew  of local celebrities were roped in as well. There ranged from film personalities to politicians and from youth icons to a radio jockey.  The campaign will be followed up with efforts to get the basic demands of getting shelters, health, educational and housing rights.