HYDERABAD: Vehemently opposing the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) move to shift the inmates of the Shelter For Urban Homeless Women located at Namalagundu in Secunderabad to a nearby community hall at Warasiguda, locals locked the gate of the community hall on Saturday, barring entry to the building.
The urban shelter, a State sponsored hostel for destitutes, is in a dilapidated condition, with portions of it already collapsed. Around 20 people, including children, pregnant women, the mentally challenged, and cancer patients live in the ramshackle building. GHMC officials had shifted half their luggage to the community hall on Friday, but the locals denied them entry.
The residents of Warasiguda alleged that setting up a women’s home would attract men into the premises of the community hall building, creating unnecessary problems for their neighbourhood. Sumalatha, the shelter home manager, said, “We had moved half the luggage of the inmates into the third floor of the community hall at Boudha Nagar, where we have been allotted space, on Friday.
But the locals locked it. They are even threatening to burn the luggage if we occupy the building. GHMC authorities have been trying to persuade them to relent and let the women and children stay there.” “It will destroy our peace. If a women’s home is set up here, then men will frequently visit the place and it will lead to unnecessary problems.
Hence, we will not allow them to occupy the building,” said Venkatesh, a local. The shelter home was set up in the GHMC building at Warasiguda in 2010 and accommodates domestic violence victims, orphans and destitute women. As some portions of the building had already collapsed, GHMC officials told the inmates to shift to the nearby community hall until the building was renovated or re-constructed. The building condition is beyond repair, with multiple cracks on the walls.