NEW DELHI: In such time of duress, people living in a night shelter at Yamuna Sports Complex are trying to stay happy by watching magic shows and taking yoga classes. Those staying are mainly migrant laborers and people from financially weaker sections of the society. The local administration has crowd-sourced two yoga trainers to conduct classes to keep them physically fit and magician Rajkumar for killing dullness.
“The idea is to keep the mind and body fit and during such times it is very easy for negativity, depression due to boredom to creep in. So, a magic show is conducted with music. The residents are made aware that after they leave this shelter they should go out and make others aware of coronavirus. The idea behind this magic show and yoga lessons originated after five people started showing signs of mental breakdown
during the initial days of setting up camp.
Those people were immediately taken to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS). Now a team of doctors from the institute do routine checks of the residents at the night shelter. The biggest night shelter in the national capital in terms of capacity the migrant laborers is providing a fruit daily and sanitary pads have been made available for women.
This model night shelter has a capacity of accommodating 1,500 people and currently 300 people are living there. The Yamuna Sports Complex was converted into a makeshift camp on March 31 for those stranded in Delhi without a home.
Among the 300 occupants currently residing in the night shelter, the majority are migrant laborers who tried to leave Delhi on foot when the lockdown was imposed and street dwellers.