Houselessness and Mental-Physical Health: A Case Study of Kanpur Metropolitan

The article aims to analysethe mental status, prevalence of diverse mental illnesses& physical disabilities and morbidities among houseless populationof Kanpur metropolitan city. The study is based on primary source of data generated through a comprehensive field survey in the city carried out during 2012. The study reveals that usuallythere is a misconception among general population that the problem of houselessness is the outcome of mentally retarded people, butthis problem was primarily upshot of normal mental status population, because out of total sampled houseless (1384), only 97 (7 percent) houseless persons were identifies as mentally retarded people. Further, nearly one-fifth houseless population was suffering from several kinds of normal mental illnesses, wherein, depression and trauma were the most prevalent problems. Moreover, more than one-tenth houseless population was recorded as physically disabled, in which, more than half persons were handicapped by legs, furthermorethe proportion of diseased houseless households ’family members was very negligible, and the ratios of diseased male-female houseless households ’family members were 3.19 and 2.15 percent respectively.