Though there are four night shelters for the poor and homeless in Kalaburagi, they hardly find any takers as a large number of such people still prefer sleeping on the roadside and public places.
The Kalaburagi City Corporation and some NGOs jointly conducted a rapid survey on Tuesday night. The team went around the Central Bus Stand premises and identified 38 people who were sleeping in the bus stand. Of these, three were shifted to a shelter home.
City Corporation Commissioner Snehal S. Lokhande, speaking to The Hindu here on Wednesday, said that the corporation has launched a fortnight-long survey to focus on one place every day and to shift eligible destitute to night shelters by issuing them identity cards.
As per the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM), one shelter each with an accommodation capacity of 100 people must be established for every lakh of urban population. The city corporation has floated a tender to set up five night shelters for creating space for at least 500 urban homeless, he added.
Mr. Lokhande said that most of the homeless resist getting shifted to night shelters and prefer sleeping in the open area on footpaths. During the fortnight-long survey, the team will focus on places such as railway station, bus stand, Nehru Gunj, markets and religious places. “We are also spreading awareness regarding the night shelter facilities and displaying posters at various junctions,” headded.
Community organiser and community affairs officer (DAY-NULM) of the corporation Shakeel Ahmed said that there are four shelters in the city, of which two shelter homes — one in Cotton Market and the other behind the Central Bus Stand — are closed now, while two temporary night shelters — one in Jagat locality and the other behind the Veterinary Hospital — are functioning.
“Though we have temporary night shelters with a capacity to accommodate 50-60 people, the number of inmates has not crossed the single-digit mark in any of the night shelters,” he said.
The objective of the survey is to identify the homeless and provide them with benefits under the DAY-NULM scheme.
Replying to a query, Mr. Ahmed said that the accurate number of inmates at night shelters, including men and women, will be known after the survey.
