126 Int. J. Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2020 Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Human rights issues of urban homeless in India: a study of Chandigarh Namita Gupta* and Monika Jaswal Centre for Human Rights and Duties, Emerging Areas Building, Panjab University, Chandigarh-160014, India Email: namita4rights@gmail.com Email: monikajaswal84@yahoo.com *Corresponding author Abstract: The right to adequate housing is a human rights issue globally. The international law recognises the right to adequate housing both as an essential component of the right to an adequate standard of living and as a distinct right. The violation of this right leads to the violation of other indivisible human rights. Homelessness has become a major human right challenge for an emerging economy like India. According to the Census 2011, India has more than 1.77 million homeless people, of which 52.95% are located in urban areas. Independent estimates, however, place the total number of homeless persons in India at about 2.3 million. The present study has been carried out in Chandigarh, the first planned city of modern India. The effort has been made to delve into the lives of urban homeless and to analyse the problems faced by them in the context of human rights. Keywords: homelessness; human rights; right to housing. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Gupta, N. and Jaswal, M. (2020) ‘Human rights issues of urban homeless in India: a study of Chandigarh’, Int. J. Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp.126–137. Biographical notes: Namita Gupta is teaching human rights for last 12 years in Centre for Human Rights and Duties, Panjab University, Chandigarh. Presently, she is the Chairperson of the Centre. Besides her MA, MPhil and PhD in Public Administration from Panjab University, she also did her Masters in Human Rights and Duties. She has visited many countries for academic purposes such as South Korea, Hungray, Austria, Canada. She has authored a book titled Environmental Administration in India: Issues and Concerns and has edited a book titled Human Rights in India: Contemporary Issues and Challenges. Besides this, she has published more than 32 research articles in various reputed national and international journals and books and has presented 35 papers in national and international seminars and conferences. Her area of interest are- environment, urban governance, rights of the aged and differently-abled. Monika Jaswal has done Masters in Human Rights from Panjab University, Chandigarh is currently working as a Senior Research Fellow (SRF) and pursuing PhD from Centre for Human Rights and Duties, Panjab University, Chandigarh. The area of her research is Human Rights Issues of Urban Homeless in Mohali and Ludhiana Cities of Punjab.