NPR's new report, published October 17, 2026, puts a human face on a quiet crisis outside India's most prestigious hospitals: families who travel hundreds of miles for treatment at AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi end up sleeping on the sidewalk — because they can afford the treatment, but not a roof over their heads while they wait.
A night on the pavement outside AIIMS
On one night in August, NPR found dozens of families on blankets and sheets laid directly on the sidewalk outside the two hospitals, which stand opposite each other. Mosquito nets were tied to railings. Bags sat beside sleeping children. One family member usually stays awake to guard their belongings, because the rest of the family must sleep.
Photographer Sajad Hameed's images show a small world that has grown up around these sidewalk dwellers: women cook rice over makeshift brick stoves, volunteers distribute food, nearby shops sell medicines and necessities, and tea stalls — open around the clock — even let families charge their phones.
Hundreds of miles from home, for months at a time
Shabana Kumar, 30, and Arun Kumar, 32, travelled more than 600 miles from Bihar. Their 6-year-old son is in the AIIMS oncology ward with leukemia. They sleep in shifts of about an hour at a time, terrified of missing an urgent call. They came to Delhi because they could not afford the boy's cancer treatment at home.
Shalini Yadav, 20, a second-year college student from Piprat village in Madhya Pradesh — a trip of some 370 miles — has suffered an intestinal illness for five or six years and undergone two operations. Preparing for the state civil service exam, she reads the 1949 Hindi novel Gunahon Ka Devta on the pavement outside AIIMS. "We thought AIIMS was the best hospital in India," she told NPR.
Lakhi Bai, 62, a farmer from Maihar district, some 500 miles away, has diabetes and a loss of sensation. After about 20 days sleeping outside Safdarjung with no treatment plan yet, she said: "I cannot afford to bring someone with me… I just pray that I can get the treatment I need."
Balraam Singh, 35, a brick-kiln worker from Meerut who earns $5 to $7 a day, has spent about a month outside Safdarjung with his wife and 7-year-old son Munna, who has a hole in the heart.
Aamar Singh, 60, a farmer from Hathras, sleeps outside AIIMS with his sister while his 35-year-old daughter Neelam lies in the ICU with a respiratory problem — sometimes beside stray dogs, some days going hungry. "Sometimes you eat, sometimes you don't… This is our situation."
A sidewalk ecosystem — and calls for shelter
Vishnu Singh, 38, runs a tea stall outside AIIMS with his brother Arjun, open 24 hours a day. "I see poor people sleeping here every day, so many that I cannot even count them," he said.
Rajiv Ranjan, of the Delhi-based Donate A Meal Trust, distributes about 100 meals a day — plus clothes and rations — to patients and their attendants outside both hospitals. "They have nowhere else to stay, so we try to help with whatever we can," he said, adding that families need shade and shelter from the rain, with some taking refuge under the Delhi Metro.
AIIMS subsidizes treatment costs for families in need, but NPR's email asking about overnight accommodations went unanswered.
The takeaway
Treatment at India's top public hospitals is within reach for the poor; a place to sleep while receiving it is not. As Delhi's hospitals draw patients from across the country, the sidewalks outside have become an open-air ward — one the city has yet to account for.
Watch: NDTV's video report "Sleeping Outside AIIMS: Patients, Relatives Battle Cold, Pollution and Rats," showing patients and relatives sleeping on pavements and underpasses outside AIIMS Delhi, with the AIIMS Director's response.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Lightless Dawn (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: NPR / Montana Public Radio; World Right Now