New Delhi: “My eldest daughter is only 11, yet every night she stands guard with me. We sleep on the outside, keeping the younger children tightly between us and the wall so no one can take them.”This is the nocturnal strategy of Fatima, a mother living with her children under a flyover. In the aftermath of the abduction and sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl, allegedly by a cab driver in south Delhi’s Chhatarpur, TOI visited several flyovers across the city and found families living in a state of perpetual vigilance, where sleep is secondary to survival.Mothers sleep along the outer edge to act as a human shield, sandwiching the children safely between themselves and the rigid concrete walls. To hide their presence from predatory passersby, they tightly wrap the children in heavy bedsheets, masking the fact that a child is even there.Underneath the Lodhi Road flyover, a patch of road between two massive pillars forms a border. Drug users occupy one side, while families huddle around the opposite pillar. Here, Fatima nurses her 15-day-old infant, staying awake all night because active surveillance is their only real defence.Her world is bounded by the gray concrete above and the relentless hum of the city. Her husband passed away while she was still pregnant, and she was left alone to protect and feed three other young children. To survive, she begs during the day, but the nights are where the true battle begins.Fatima and her eldest daughter sleep as tightly as possible close to the pillar with the children between them to ensure their safety.Just a few yards away, across the invisible border line, three men lounge on old, repurposed sofas that serve as makeshift beds. The women claim the men inhale tube solutions, smoke charas and inject drugs openly. Yet, for them, they are a “familiar threat”. The greater danger arrives on four wheels.“Cars constantly slow down along the dark road. Men roll down their windows, shouting obscenities and trying to lure the children away,” one of the women said.In this stretch, the families rely on an unorthodox security detail: a pack of loyal street dogs named Moti, Millie, Julie and Chintu. Fed whatever scraps the families can spare, these dogs bark fiercely at any unfamiliar face approaching too close.For institutional help, the nearby Nizamuddin and Lodhi Road police stations offer a fragile safety net. “When things get bad, the officers come quickly,” Fatima said, recalling a recent emergency where police rushed a resident to the hospital. “But we cannot sleep. We have to stay awake.”Under the Rajouri Garden flyover near Shivaji College, a cluster of 8-10 people speak of a similar life. Among them is Shanti, a 50-year-old woman who has lived on Delhi’s streets since childhood, and Karma, a 20-year-old mother cradling her 11-month-old baby.To cope, the women employ the same suffocating camouflage tactics. Even in the sweltering summer heat, children are wrapped completely in heavy bedsheets. From the road, it looks like a pile of laundry or single adults sleeping, hiding the vulnerable youth from predatory eyes. “We use broken glass bottles or heavy stones to weigh down the edges of our children’s bedsheets, making it harder to quickly lift it,” said Karma.“When we have young girls with us, we cannot afford to close our eyes,” Shanti said. “Theft is rampant, and physical assaults are an everyday risk.”Most people said when they manage to save up a little money, they buy cheap mosquito nets, tie the strings and try to create a tiny space that feels like they have four walls of their own. To escape the hard, hot pavement, they often move their mattresses toward the green bushes planted under the flyovers for the city’s beautification.“The softer ground feels better, but it is a trap. These same bushes are where alcoholics and drug addicts go to hide,” Karma said. “Some of us carry small packets of chilli powder or mud hidden in the folds of our dupatta, ready to throw it into the eyes of any attacker.”Asked why they endure such brutal conditions instead of seeking refuge in govt night shelters, there is an alarming consensus: the streets are safer. “There are violent, gang-like factions that rule the shelters. If you don’t obey them or give up your space, they get hostile and beat you up,” claimed Shanti.Despite the known dangers of the flyover, the women say they would choose the open air rather than the confined violence of the shelters.
