CHENNAI: In an often seen internet image that surfaces whenever there’s an economic crisis anywhere in the world, ‘I do not need coins, I need change’, reads a placard propped against the wall next to a homeless person who lives on a pavement. It was a hard-hitting scenario in Broadway, where the Chennai Corporation staff on Tuesday prescribed ‘home quarantine’ for a group of homeless families. We can gauge the degree of that change achieved and the question of efforts made in assuring quality life to the last equal citizen flies across our faces.
After a 50-year-old woman tested positive in Chennai on Monday, it was found that there was a group of around 30 homeless individuals staying in the same street as hers in Broadway (the name of the street is not published to protect the woman’s privacy).
Having ruled out the idea of shifting them, Corporation staff have asked for both ends of the street to be closed with barricades, thus placing them under ‘street quarantine’. Entry and exit of vehicles have been stopped in the stretch. Since Tuesday was their first day of ‘quarantine’, the families said they had access to food. Corporation officials told Express that they would be provided with food for their quarantine period even if they run out of stock.