Hyderabad: Nothing can be more bizarre than this! One can find homeless people sleeping with or without blankets across pavements, platforms of railway stations, government hospitals and underneath flyovers. However, officials from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) could only manage to ‘spot’ 600 such homeless people in several years. Ironically, over the years, the corporation made no effort to either counsel or provide a permanent solution to the shelter-less, whose number never crossed 600 even in winters.
Instructions have remained on paper all these years and officials were in no mood to clarify on why the civic body has failed to accommodate the homeless, who have to brave bone-chilling cold.
Some of those sleeping on footpaths, near Metro stations, railway stations and bus stations gather around fires to get protection from the cold. GHMC officials are, apparently, oblivious of the Supreme Court’s directions to all civic bodies to provide shelter to all homeless people.
The Centre advised authorities to mobilise homeless persons by identifying hotspots where they congregate, by taking up a bi-weekly survey in each hotspot, and then shift them to shelters for urban homeless (SUH). Covid tests and basic health check-ups should be conducted on them and a database of their records must be maintained, it said.
Ironically, no such effort was made by the GHMC but to sound politically correct, the corporation has been issuing official releases claiming that they are geared up to provide shelter to the homeless in winters. Over five years, it has been claiming that it has initiated a series of measures, including renovation of existing night shelters and providing more facilities at these homes.
The main objective is to see that no one is left on the streets in winter. They can go to shelter homes where there are mattresses, woolen blankets and other facilities. Like every year, instructions were given to all zonal commissioners to set up temporary shelter homes and, if necessary, use community halls for the purpose.
None of the officials were ready to comment on the issue.
With night temperatures dipping as winter has set in, shelter homes in greater Hyderabad are found inadequate for accommodating the homeless and migrant citizens. There are 15 shelter homes in the twin cities, which can together accommodate around 530 inmates. Presently 500 homeless have been using the facility, mostly during the night.
As per a recent survey conducted by the Urban Community Development (UCD) wing of GHMC, there are around 1,532 homeless living in various places in the city. The million dollar question that the corporation has to answer is on why it is ignoring several such homeless despite the directions of the apex court.
As the numbers are going to swell in the next few days, the GHMC has now decided to establish six more temporary shelter homes, one each in their zones. Of the 15 shelter homes, 11 are for men while four are earmarked for women.
Among the 21 night shelters in the GHMC limits, seven are located inside the premises of government hospitals. Osmania general hospital, ENT hospital, Niloufer hospital, Mahavir hospital and research center, NIMS, Koti maternity hospital and Nampally government hospital provide accommodation to the family members of patients free of cost.
However, the corporation staff and even police have been ensuring that the place remains unoccupied apprehending the spread of Covid-19, especially the Omicron variant.
