In view of prevailing cold conditions, Haryana Government has installed 26 portable cabins for urban homeless in nine districts of Haryana including Panchkula, Faridabad, Gurugram, Sonipat, Panipat, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Bahadurgarh and Rohtak.
These are besides 103 night shelters being run by the district administration, Red Cross, government departments and religious organisations, said Urban Local Bodies Minister Kavita Jain.
Each permanent, all-weather shelter has provision of basic amenities like bed, bedding, blankets, recreation facilities, store room, clock room, caretaker, potable drinking water, toilets, bathrooms, first aid/basic medical facility and free/economically priced food for each homeless, she added.
Regular cleaning and maintenance of the shelters is taken care of by managers and caretakers. At some places, there are special shelters to cater to the most vulnerable groups such as single women and their dependent minor children, aged, infirm, disabled and mentally challenged, the Minister said.
It also seeks to cater to the needs of vulnerable segments of the urban homeless like dependent children, aged, disabled, mentally ill and recovering gravely ill, by creating special sections within homeless shelters and provisioning special service linkages for them; to provide access to various entitlements, viz. social security pensions, PDS, ICDS, identity, financial inclusion, education, affordable housing etc. for homeless population.