BENGALURU: It’s a common sight in the city - homeless people taking shelter for the night near temples, at bus stands and even on footpaths, putting themselves at risk.
Reason: Although the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) mandates that the BBMP must have at least 100 night shelters (at the rate of one per one lakh population) to provide a roof over the heads of homeless people, the BBMP can only boast of a meagre eight night shelters.
As a result, the homeless have been forced to brave cold weather and rain. The BBMP appears to have big plans to provide a large number of night shelters, but it has failed to maintain even the existing ones.
Following a government directive, the BBMP had set up 12 night shelters in various parts of the city. Shockingly, four shelters have been shut down. Two were closed last year.
This year, another two were shut down -- one each at Murphy Town in Shivajinagar and JC Road in South zone. This has resulted in homeless people wandering around and spending their nights on the streets, which can be dangerous, said sources.
Currently, officially, BBMP has eight night shelters. Each centre houses about 25 persons. At this rate, only 200 homeless people have been provided shelter. As per the survey by a private agency, the city has over 20,000 homeless people.
But according to the BBMP statistics, the city has only about 1,218 homeless. This is a huge discrepancy and a clear violation of NULM rules, said sources in the BBMP.
NULM mandates that cities must have night shelters at the rate of one per one lakh population. Bengaluru has a population of one crore. At this rate, the city should have 100 shelters. But it does not. In some places, community halls have been turned into shelters.
The NULM prescribes that these shelters must have proper ventilation, beds, blankets, bathrooms and toilets. Due to lack of will and interest on the part of the BBMP, homeless people have been languishing on the footpath. This is a clear violation of the Supreme court order.
