It was a long time since I visited India (almost 20 years ago now), but when I went there were so many homeless people that on the way between the airport and Delhi city-center at night entire sidewalks were tightly packed with homeless people sleeping on them next to one another without gaps.
Those people are in the cities because they have jobs, or the hope of finding them, or at least enough people to beg from and dumpsters to dive. Maybe out in the country they'd find a roof to shelter under, but that doesn't do much good if you've got no food or money and no way to get either.
Yes, you'll see homeless people on the footpaths of Indian cities. I have visited plenty of small towns, but I can't recall seeing homeless people there at all. Quite a lot of the footpath dwellers come from nomadic communities, selling things like clay pots, handicrafts, etc. I don't know what percent of footpath dwellers are from such communities, or any other aspects of their demographics though. At least in Bangalore, I know from the language they speak that they are not from this state.
Yeah, outside of Mumbai I have seen very few "homeless". In India there is always a room to stay depending on the budget or how much you are willing to "travel". India also does not have a huge drug problem, and of course there is always the option of staying with parents / relatives / friends or going back to the native village. In cities with limited space and crazy real-estate prices like Mumbai it is different.
