The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is developing an application to store facial recognition and other data of homeless people while conducting a homeless survey in all the 198 wards.

The BBMP Information Technology (IT) department is developing the app and the civic body's welfare department officials will use this to store the data of homeless people and identify them.

Speaking to DH, BBMP Special Commissioner, Randeep D said: “In all, officials at the 198 wards of the BBMP will conduct the survey of homeless people. We will collect data along with the facial recognition of the homeless people in an app which will be developed soon.”

“Since the homeless people are often wanderers, we have to track them to take care of them in the urban centres. The app will store their photos, name and the centre or place where they have to stay,” he added.

The Supreme Court in 2010 directed all the state governments to set up shelters for the homeless, especially in towns with a population of 1 lakh and more.

The urban homeless survey by the BBMP along with Dream India Network and Impact India Consortium was completed in three major zones of the city in December 2018. Officials identified close to 1,200 urban homeless in the East zone itself. South and West are the other two zones where the survey was completed.

The civic body has also identified 1,526 homeless people in the West zone and at least 2,200 in the South. The BBMP is planning to set up around 40 permanent shelters across the city for the homeless people by next winter. This would come as a huge relief for the thousands sleeping out in the open on the streets and pavements of Bengaluru.

“We have completed the survey in East, West, and South zones, we will start the survey in other five zones soon,” Randeep explained.

DH News Service