New Delhi: At least 3 million homeless people across the country are having to sleep outdoors in the bitter cold this year as state governments have done little to provide shelters, the Supreme Court commissioners have said in their national report.
They noted that all 15 states studied were in partial or complete violation of the SC order to set up permanent shelters for the homeless before the onset of winter.
There are no reasons or excuses the poor performing states could give out for such delays,” the report said.
Delhi, ironically one of the better performers, was required to set up 129 permanent shelters but only 64 came up even as peak winter set in. Of these, only 41 were permanent 21 were found shut. One shelter existed only on paper.
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SC commissioners’ report says only 3 out of 15 states studied — Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh — showed average compliance
While Delhi had to put up 129 shelters, only 64 came up, of which 21 were found locked. One shelter was only on paper.Delhi shelters were in remote locations and basic amenities were very poor, it said Only three states complied with SC order on shelters
New Delhi: Following a Supreme Court order to set up permanent shelters for the homeless before the onset of winter, only three states of 15 studied by SC commissioners showed average level of compliance: Delhi, TN and UP, which built 30-60% of the required shelters.
Ten states put up only 20-30% of the shelters required to house the poor. These were Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, a national report on homelessness compiled by the SC commissioners said.
Two states, the court commissioners said, which showed willful disobedience of the court orders and not set up even 20% of their targeted shelters were Maharashtra and West Bengal. In both, no functional shelters exist till date. Of 64 shelters that Delhi put up, 21 were found locked. “The 21 shelters are underutilized and, in most cases, locked. Homeless are not aware of those shelters. Shelters are located in places which are too difficult to identify. The occupied shelters are only for men and no separate space for women in those. The basic amenities provided in the shelters are very poor,” the report said.
Apathy towards homeless seems to be worst in the big cities. In Greater Mumbai, when the local corporation tried to start a shelter, the local Shiv Sena MLA objected to it. While Maharashtra claimed it would build 27 shelters in 15 cities by October 31, 2011, not a single shelter is in operation. In Kolkata, the state government claimed two running shelters existed and three more were being renovated. But the study found none operational. Worse, in Howrah, homeless families were actually evicted from a running shelter. Chennai, on the other hand, is doing better with 12 functional shelters though these too have their attendant problems.
In a scathing critique of government indifference, the report said: “Two years have elapsed now since the court first directed the states one winter has given way to another and to another monsoons have come and gone by… In this period, the SC has reviewed the case on more that 10 occasions and has periodically guided the governments with support from office of the commissioners of the SC to ensure implementation of the SC directions.”
The commissioners said that even where the shelters existed, in many cases the most basic facilities were not there. In the biting cold, there are shelters across the country which do not even provide a polythene sheet and people sleep on cold bare ground in many. There are shelters which have been opened in cremation grounds (Kanpur), or outside city limits. The commissioners noted that the Centre too had failed in formulating a policy to provide for the homeless. The only scheme it once ran was whittled down and then wound up in 2005.
