Strategic action plan for Chennai homeless

CHENNAI: The Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Communities (IRCDUC) and Okapi Research and Advisory, recently released a policy paper titled ‘Understanding Disaster Vulnerability of Chennai’s Homeless’. This elaborates the impact of Covid-19 on the homeless and the need for policy safeguard.

The key recommendations are providing access to shelters, access to basic services, single-window system for provision of entitlements, creating awareness among homeless about welfare schemes and developing an urban homeless policy.

According to the study, there is currently no homeless policy in the country and the homeless shelters are being administered through the SUH scheme under the Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihoods Mission programme.

This restricts the scope of the shelters since the programme is a livelihood mission and not a housing programme. The organisation recommends improving access to entitlements by enhancing coordination between  government departments and through convergence of schemes and laws.

It also suggests inclusion of homeless shelters and hotspots in the master plan to ensure integration into the formal planning process. One must explicitly recognise that the homeless are not a homogeneous group, but are very diverse with different demographic and social characteristics who have different needs (e.g. children, women, elderly persons with disabilities) and equip shelters in terms of qualified staff and infrastructure to cater to their varied needs.