You Will Be Left Sleepless When You Watch How These Homeless Sleep

Shaunak Sen’s ‘Cities of Sleep’ highlights how sleep is used as a means for exercising control over the poor.

Cities of sleep talks about the infamous ‘sleep mafia’ in Delhi. (Photo: Aman Mann)

Ever wondered where the homeless sleep?

People living, eating and sleeping on the streets is a regular phenomenon in India. For millions of poor who don’t have a place to live, the sky is their roof. For India’s homeless, however, life’s a cruel joke.

Shaunak Sen’s Cities of Sleep is a documentary that takes us into a heady world of insurgent sleepers’ communities, as well as the infamous ‘sleep mafia’ in Delhi, where just securing a safe sleeping spot often becomes a question of life and death for many people.

The official poster of Shaunak Sen’s documentary Cities of Sleep.

Have you ever wondered why people sleep on dividers during summer? The gush of wind when the cars pass by prevents mosquito bites.

Some powerful quotes from the documentary will haunt you. Shaunak sen’s Cities of Sleep looks at the tremendous social and political pressure that sleep exerts on the homeless in the city.

Watch the 3-min trailer of the documentary below.