Heart and hearth still hard to find in capital’s night shelters

NEW DELHI: Only 22% of the capital’s homeless live in shelters, but these lack in basic amenities like potable water, food and a hygienic environment. A social audit by an NGO covering 193 of 200 permanent shelters in Delhi has found this.

Indo-Global Social Service Society conducted the survey in 2017 among 1,141 homeless and released a report on Saturday named Understanding Homelessness in Delhi. It said half of the shelters did not have potable water, 59% lacked bathrooms, and only 7% had space for kitchen where the homeless could cook their own food. The report also said that 82% were not disabled-friendly.

Only 22% of the city’s homeless actually use the shelters. “Of the people we surveyed, only 50 were dependant on alms and the rest were daily wagers, which eliminated the myth that the homeless are mostly beggars,” said Anirudh Singh of IGSSS.

He added, “There is now need to set up shelters with subsidised foods, provision of community kitchen, safe lockers and linking homeless to different schemes. It’s time that we look beyond the shelters and explore the possible ways to ensure housing continuum by building dormitories for the homeless. There is also a need to empower the homeless by giving training and non-formal education to them,” Singh said.

The study found dealing with the police was a daily challenge. “We have also recommended that the police and government machinery be sensitised to deal with the homeless. The homeless themselves need to participate more with the state,” Singh added.

Indu Prakash Singh, a member of a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee on the urban homeless shelters also highlighted how the bureaucracy needed to empathise with the issue and participate more in planning. “In the last seven meetings we had, the secretary of the urban development department did not participate. The money to improve the shelters comes from National Urban Livelihoods Mission and the UD department is the custodian of that fund. This shows why the problem still persists,” Singh said.

DUSIB said the shelters have improved in the two years since the survey. “We have tried to provide all basic amenities at these shelters. The homeless now have proper mattresses, blankets and pillows. We have made arrangement of potable water and hot water during winters. A team of doctors visit these shelters twice a week,” DUSIB member-expert Bipin Rai said.