Waifs and strays play truant

Mattresses and blankets rolled up to the sides of the wall, little children playing about, clothes hung across lines, old women selling leafy vegetables, and stray dogs outside.

Welcome to the shelter for the homeless, many of which are run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) engaged by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

A reality check of how many of these shelters function revealed the upsides and downsides. Parivartana Rural Development and Women Empowerment Society, an NGO, manages two such shelters — at Dasarahalli and Rajarajeshwari Nagar. Narasimhamurthy J, the NGO director, says basic facilities are provided to the homeless people at the shelter.

Surabhi Foundation Trust, another NGO, is in charge of two other shelters at Vasanthpur and Kothanur Dinne.

Shivabasavayya, Bommanahalli Zone Joint Commissioner, says, “We conduct a survey twice a month and find people who have no roof to stay under.

The occupants of these shelters are provided with one meal in the morning, which comes through Iskcon.” The shelter also houses children, for whom tuitions are arranged in the evenings. Teachers from the NGO have been appointed for the purpose, he adds.

Both the shelters, known as Samudhaya Bhavan, have been functioning since September 2011. Each shelter can accommodate 25 to 30 people and usually there are around 15 regular occupants. There are separate toilets and bathrooms for men and women, mattresses, and round-the-clock security guards.

For security reasons, each occupant is provided with an ID card to be presented at the shelter gate. The NGO says the occupants are offered weekly health checkups by nurses from nearby hospitals, and at monthly health camps.

The shelters were built to house people found sleeping on roads, park benches and living in roadside tents. But NGOs find it tough to convince them to stay in shelters.

There is also the problem of filtering the genuinely homeless from those who actually run away and return home the next day. Surveys are beset by this confusion.
N Nagaraj, caretaker at the Palike’s Dasarahalli Zone shelter, says, “We face problems trying to convince people to stay at the shelter as they are afraid they might be misled.

Some people even tell us they will return the next day, but they never come back.” Moreover, there are families with about 15 members who do not co-operate, as they are afraid of being separated from each other. Instead, they demand independent houses for themselves. Others are apprehensive as the fear ill treatment.”

Even if they choose to stay at the shelter, they find it difficult to adjust, and make up excuses to leave. The people who do occupy the shelter for a month or so, spend their daily wages on alcohol and return drunk.

According to Nagesh from Surabhi Foundation Trust at the Kothanur shelter, “the occupants spend 50 per cent of their wages on alcohol. They enter the shelter drunk and create problems.”

Some shelters have used the space to accommodate an appropriate number of people while others have not managed to completely utilise the given space. The shelter at Kothanur, for example, has two rooms, of which the smaller one is where the 25 occupants sleep.

The other room is a classroom for children, which is used for only a few hours every evening. “If more homeless people are found, then another building will be built for the purpose,” says Shivabasavaiyya.

The NGO running the Dasarahalli shelter has sought beds and lockers for the occupants. At the Bommanahalli shelter, a proposal has been made to build a permanent building with recreation facilities. The NGO is in talks with the government authorities to provide the shelter’s permanent occupants with voter ID cards and ration cards.

This is aimed at making their living more beneficial, not just for themselves, but also to society.