Trivandrum corporation initiates drive to Shelter the homeless

The Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation has embarked on a mission to identify the homeless within its limits.
Homeless people sleeping on a pavement
Homeless people sleeping on a pavement

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation has embarked on a mission to identify the homeless within its limits. The drive has been initiated as part of the state government’s effort to draw up a sustainable housing programme for the shelterless in the state.
The project which is being carried out by the city corporation was inaugurated by Mayor V K Prasanth at the Medical College here on Wednesday. As the first step, the corporation initiated a survey to identify the homeless.

“There is a significant population in the city who are shelterless and spend nights on the pavements. We did not have a registry of these group previously and this prompted us to conduct the survey,” said Deputy Mayor Rakhi Ravikumar.

“The survey began at the Medical College area of the city on Wednesday and will be conducted across the corporation. It will be completed by the end of this month with help from labour unions, traders and the police force,” Rakhi said.

Apart from the homeless, the corporation will also collect the data of migrant labourers, street vendors, rag pickers and domestic workers as part of the extensive survey. The governing body also plans to issue identity cards after the completion of the survey.  The identified homeless will then be provided shelter equipped with essential services as part of the Shelter for the Urban Homeless project under the Central Government’s National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM).

The survey is being carried out by the health committee members of the corporation and the management unit of the NULM. It will be carried out after 9 pm for 10 days with the corporation receiving Rs 20 per individual from NULM.

“The corporation will also receive financial aid from the Centre to create shelter homes and rehabilitate them. We will also make use of existing facilities like the old age homes functioning in the city,” the deputy mayor said.

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