Night shelters to come up in more municipalities

CHENNAI: State government has extended homeless intervention scheme beyond the 10 city corporations to 22 municipal local bodies and a Grade III municipality, according to official sources.The decision comes in the wake of a list submitted by Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission to the Supreme Court last year stating that the state requires 116 shelters for homeless.Sources said there are currently 22 shelters for homeless in the state of which 15 are in Chennai. These include 12 shelters, which are functional in the city and three being proposed.Meanwhile, civil rights groups have voiced their concern, that the population of homeless is based on census survey done in 2001. Surprisingly, the survey done by the state government pegs the number of homeless at 209 in Madurai but a survey done by a civil rights group places the figure to more than 750 in the area.Interestingly, the total number of families identified by the Chennai corporation is 2,586 but a rapid identification process done by the civil societies reveal that there are  a minimum of 5,132 families.Non governmental organisations like Citizen Rights Forum (CRF) have suggested the need for uniformity in implementation of homeless shelters across the state. “They are functioning only as night shelters and not as 24 hours shelters as stated in the SC guidelines,” said Balasundar of CRF.“Many of the shelters are unsuitable for families, who constitute a major population of homeless in Chennai. Houses have to be located close to locations in which they can find work,” said Balasundar.