As the death toll of the homeless is on the rise in the national Capital, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) shrugged off criticism for its inability to reach out to all the homeless in the chilly winter.
The CEO of DUSIB, VK Jain, said it was not "apt" to blame them for the deaths happening on the streets of Delhi as each death had different causes which only the Delhi Police could ascertain. Also, he requested the elite and rich in the city to avoid donating voluntarily to the homeless and donate to the night shelters managed by the board.
"All those who want to give donations to the homeless can either contact the 24x7 control room of DUSIB or do so by going to the nearest night shelter. People should abstain from doing charity on roads like donating blankets, food and providing other aid to the homeless as it encourages them to stay out in open expecting help from rich but it is exposing them to danger. Providing help this way is indirectly harming their cause," Jain told the media in Sunday.
Jain said the DUSIB had sufficient funds and support of the Delhi Government in assuring the well being of the homeless across the city. He stressed that the board was only authorised to "persuade" the homeless to take to the night shelters and whoever chose not to follow them had a fundamental right to decide as the board could not "arrest or force" them.
"A lot of people ask us why despite arrangements people are seen spending nights on roads. But I want to clarify that there is no provision in the Constitution by which we can force a homeless person to shift to night shelters. We can only persuade them and we are doing that," Jain added.
Reacting to the data released by an NGO Centre for Holistic Development (CHD), which put the number of deaths of homeless between January 19 and 20 at seven, Jain said there is no clarity as to what caused these deaths. "There can be several reasons behind death. There can a crime angle, drug addiction factor, illness or anything else which can be ascertained only by the police," Jain said.
The shelter management agencies and NGOs are operating 20 rescue teams, which till yesterday (Saturday), shifted 6,002 homeless staying in the open to nearby night shelters while 813 others, however, refused to avail the facility.
The Government has also launched an app developed by DUSIB that enables people to click pictures of the homeless sleeping out in the night so they could be rescued and sheltered. "We have rescued 312 homeless people through this app and 114 people with the help of calls made to our control room," Jain said.
Currently, there are 260 night shelters having a capacity for 18,928 people, including 84 permanent night shelters, 115 porta cabins, 59 tents and two set by DMRC. Of the 260, there are 20 shelters for women, 12 for families, 12 for children and 3 for drug addicts.
"The occupancy of all the shelters is being monitored daily online. As per reports available about 10,507 people stayed in the night shelters on Saturday," said Jain, adding that each shelter is equipped with sufficient number of blankets, durries, mats, toilets and drinking water, first aid box," he said.