How can state mix up homeless with beggars, ask NGOs
A group of NGOs came together on the World Habitat Day to protest against an affidavit filed by state on shelters for the homeless. They sought withdrawal of the affidavit which according to them has mixed up the term homeless with slumdwellers and beggars.
The affidavit came in reply to the petition filed by the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties seeking that state governments should provide shelter homes in cities with a population of more than five lakh, as per the directive laid down by the apex court in May this year.
State in its affidavit claimed that it can not go about building any new set up as it already has beggar homes. How can the term beggars be interchangeably used for homeless? Beggars homes are not open shelters but custodial institutions where you can go only after being arrested by the police. It denies freedom and opportunity to go out and work, said Shwetank Mishra from NGO Sathi.
In its affidavit to the Supreme Court, the state has acknowledged that homeless are the poorest of the poor and cannot afford informal housing. However, the affidavit also mixes the homeless with slumdwellers. The term homeless, as defined in the Census of India, is for the one who lacks basic amenity of shelter and who lives on pavements, pipes, temples, under flyovers. He is not a slum dweller, who has in some form constructed some pucca structure to live in. While Delhi government runs a shelter home for its homeless, why cant Maharashtra? said activist Anand Lakhan, who has been conducting surveys across the country on the implementation of the apex courts order.
While the state in its affidavit admits that it would not be able to burden itself with any new projects, the NGOs said that none of the shelter homes is free of cost. Its incorrectly been projected that the shelter homes are available free of cost. It is untrue. They are rental homes available on day-to-day basis. Most of the homeless are daily wage labourers and hence are in a position to pay on a daily basis, Maju Varghese from YUVA, a city based NGO, said.