Now app comes to the rescue of homeless in city

DUSIB marshals will take all destitutes to night shelters

Starting Friday, homeless people stranded on the streets can be rescued to the nearest night shelters by uploading their picture on an app.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will launch the app developed by city government department the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), to relocate destitutes to rain baseras.

The DUSIB, responsible for looking after night shelters across the city, will deploy marshals who will take the homeless population to the nearest rain baseras.

Kejriwal will also inaugurate two night shelters in east Delhi’s Geeta Ghat on the bank of Yamuna on Friday. These shelter homes will have a capacity to accommodate about 500 people. “These shelter homes are supposed the biggest ones ever set up by the department (DUSIB). The facility will also be used for recovery patients,” said an official.

Even Delhiites will be able to help relocate homeless people by uploading their pictures on the app.

A user can initiate a rescue operation over the phone by taking a picture and posting it on the app. “The DUSIB server will automatically lead to the location of the person and the nearest rescue team will be informed. The app user will have access to a list of shelters and one can inform the nearest shelter about the homeless person’s location.”

“After the rescue has been completed, the user will be sent an update on phone and email.”

The issue of homeless people also shook the Delhi Assembly’s ongoing session with the opposition claiming that so far 402 unidentified bodies have been found in Kashmere Gate area itself.

“NGOs working for the cause claim that most of them are of the homeless population. There is a steep rise in the number of deaths of homeless this year,” Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta had said last week during the House proceedings.

AAP MLA Alka Lamba, who has been raising the issue of homeless people in the Delhi Assembly’s ongoing winter session, tweeted, “DUSIB Wl launch d App on 4th December with team of marshals who will bring such people(HomeLess) to Night Shelters.”

NGOs working for the cause say there are over 1.5 lakh homeless people across the city, while the Delhi government survey in 2014 managed to locate just over 16,000 destitutes on the streets in Delhi.