HYDERABAD: As midnight closed in, mercury level stood somewhere around 17 degree Celsius in the city. Despite the chill in air, four ceiling fans whirred at normal speed while eight persons slept below them, covered in blankets with only thin mats between them and the cold floor. It’s a common scene at Hyderabad’s biggest night shelter.
Located below the Begumpet flyover, the shelter houses 40 persons. Right adjacent to it flows the Begumpet nala in all its glory. The putrid stench of the drain, coupled with mosquitoes, bandicoots, and cats preying upon them, explains the several unoccupied beds here.
Spread across 4,000 square feet, the shelter has been operating from the premises for a year-and-half. The inmates here comprise an assorted sort. One would be wrong to presume them to be beggars and rag pickers. A good number of educated persons also find home in such shelters. There’s an MBA here, and also an MA in Telugu. There also are two BSc, two BTech, two BA and two BCom degree holders. Ten of them are Class X, and six intermediate pass outs. Seventeen of these inmates work in catering sector. There are nine daily wage labourers, two painters, a carpenter, a welder and some who work at tea stalls, photocopiers, printing press etc.
Some are jobless.
‘Not easy to convince street dwellers to join shelters’
“Not everyone has their degrees as they might have cut ties with families. Many people did not have identity cards when we brought them here,” says MV Chandrasekhar, former inmate and now a mobiliser-cum-caretaker at a shelter home run by NGO Aman Vedika. Inmates are monitored and are expected to leave in some months, he adds.
Ch Subba Rao, member of the mobilising committee which surveys streets and brings homeless to the shelters, said a person on the street can fall prey to rowdysheeters, drunkards, policemen, rich-and-brash-youngsters etc.
“It is difficult to convince and bring someone to a shelter. It takes weeks of counselling to rid them of the trauma they have undergone,” he said.
“When volunteers came to take me to a shelter for the first time, I was suspicious. I did not want to lose my freedom. However, they explained me everything and after coming here, I feel much better,” said Sanjay Sharma, who joined the home six days ago.
State of affairs at shelters
Following guidelines of National Urban Livelihood Mission for Scheme of Shelter for Urban Homeless, different committees for mess, discipline, health, cleaning, water etc are maintained by inmates. A registry of attendance and counselling is also maintained.
However, drinking water is still an issue here. Inmates have to walk nearly half-a-kilometre to fetch water. Also, some of the urinals and bathroom do not have proper doors or running water supply. And when it rains, inmates say, water seeps through the ceiling.
While the Centre provides 75 pc of the operations and management cost for each shelter for a period of five years, the rest is state’s contribution. A sum of `6 lakh per year is provisioned for a shelter catering to 50 homeless.