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No place for Mumbai's homeless

Recent report by the three-member Justice Kailash Gambhir report submitted to the SC rated the state of night shelters in Mumbai as 'poor' with a capacity to accommodate a measly number of 412 urban homeless.

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The shelter run by Salaam Balak Trust for street children has an over 20 feet wide open sewage drain right next to it
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In 2010 the Supreme Court asked state governments to ensure that there is one night shelter large enough to accommodate 100 people for every one lakh population. According to 2011 census Mumbai has a population of close to 12.5 crore but there are only 9 shelters to accommodate the city's estimated 57,416 homeless people. In an all-night status check, DNA decided to find out what the condition of the city's 'night shelters' were like.

Our first stop was a shelter run by the Salaam Balak Trust near the Chakala metro station. The shelter meant only for street children while functioned well was right next to an open sewage drain over 20 feet wide. Close to 60 children slept peacefully inside, watched by two guards, as it air was thick with the stench of sewage. The risk of mosquito borne infections notwithstanding, this was one of the best of all the city's night shelters.

Recent report by the three-member Justice Kailash Gambhir report submitted to the SC rated the state of night shelters in Mumbai as 'poor' with a capacity to accommodate a measly number of 412 urban homeless.

National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) guidelines requires the city to have shelters that function for 24- hours and are open to the city's homeless. We found none that were open to women. Most were shelters meant for street children masqueraded as day-shelters for homeless to comply with the SC guidelines.

We followed the address of the 'Sanskruti Building' shelter listed on the NULM website that led us to a building in Thakur Village, Kandivali. To start with the NULM had listed the wrong address. Close to 20 dogs surrounded our car when we finally found a room under the building staircase, much like the closet in Harry Potter, that was meant to be the night shelter in question. Except that this one was shut. The city's homeless were certainly not welcome here.

The night shelter in red-light area Kamathipura was somewhat a mystery. With the address of 14th Lane, Kamathipura in hand we set about to find the night shelter. 45 mins later we were as clueless as the homeless sleeping on the streets who we asked about the night shelter there. If the mythical shelter did exist, we definitely failed to find it.

The Dharamshala shelter opposite the Bandra Bus Depot in the West was one of the most interesting. Nestled inside the H/W ward office of the BMC the 10x10 shelter had two people sleeping inside - there was no room for the third one.

While there were no 24-hour shelters in the city for the homeless, most of the night shelters were meant for street children. The catch is, they weren't night shelters at all - just home for street children whose boards were changed to comply with the SC's guidelines on night shelters.

Homeless in the financial capital

57,416: Urban Homeless (as per Census, 2011)
9: Number of shelters in the City
412: Capacity
Balance capacity of shelters required to be created: 57,004
Source: Justice Kailash Gambhir Committee Report

What the report says:

The city needs to take extraordinary steps in a time bound manner
Survey for identification of urban homeless has NOT been conducted in the city
Mapping the homeless in the urban areas and identification of land for the shelter has also NOT been done
Executive Committee& Shelter Management Committees have NOT been formed in the city under DAY-NULM
Overall Grade : Poor

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