Nagpur Municipal Corporation in association with police department and three NGOs has started to shift homeless people in city to night shelters constructed and operated by the civic body. In the last seven days, 147 homeless were shifted to five night shelters.
NMC’s social welfare department, police’s economic cell and cyber crime branch and NGOs— Sanskruti, Sahara and Sahyadri— launched a week-long special drive between February 28 and March 6. Deputy municipal commissioner Ranjana Lade and DCP Shweta Khedkar also visited various parts of the city during the night drive.
Lade told, target was to shift all 307 homeless to NMC’s night shelters. “Survey revealed there are 307 homeless in the city. Accordingly, Nagpur Municipal Corporation had constructed night shelters having 220 beds at five locations. Process to construct more night shelters is going on. We saw the homeless do not come to night shelters on their own. Therefore, special drive was launched in which a team of NMC, police and NGOs made rounds of the city between 10.30pm and 1.30am,” she said.
Lade said NGOs would continue the drive. “We have provided beds, food, clothes, washrooms and other amenities at night shelters. Regular health check up of these people is being conducted. NGOs are doing counselling of these people so they can go out to earn and return to night shelters during night daily on their own. Skills training will be given to the people so they can earn good and start to live in rented houses,” she said.
The state government had issued a circular on July 11, 2011, directing all civic bodies to provide one night shelter per one lakh population. Then, the formula was revised and directives were given to construct night shelters as per population of homeless. Accordingly, 10 night shelters were constructed between 2012 and 2014 but they got no response. Hence, the drive to search and bring the homeless to night shelters was started.
Under the central government’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana -National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM), the night shelters are being operated at Sitabuldi (40 beds), below railway station flyover (30), Dipti Signal (30), Indora (20) and Hansapuri (100).
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