Paper short abstract:

This paper traces the evolution of health care programs for the homeless in Delhi by an NGO. Analysing how the organization used data, insight and forms of situated knowledge to develop its components over the last 15 years and exploring why different modes of knowing are valued differentially.

Paper long abstract:

Homeless populations are considered to be in a paradoxical state of 'perpetual crises', as well as a 'hard to reach' population. This paper traces the evolution of health care programs for the homeless in Delhi by an influential NGO, the Centre for Equity Studies. It critically analyses how the program used data, insight and forms of situated knowledge to develop, measure and advocate for its interventions ; I observe how these different modes of knowing have been valued differentially, linking this process to regimes of political power. I go on to describe a form of politics that has evolved out of state engagement and estrangement, using ideas derived from value theory; contextualizing this by describing the complex and liminal space that many organizations in India occupy between NGO, social movement and political party. Through this process I centre how these processes affect homeless population. I end by arguing for greater complexity in the terms of debates around civil and political society in India and the developing world, proposing a form of analysis built from anthropological theories of value.