In a gesture to help the homeless drug addicts, the Delhi Government has proposed setting up a 500-bed drug de-addiction centre to offer assistance and psychological counselling.
Currently, Delhi Gover-nment has a 30-bed de-addiction facility for the homeless at a shelter in Kotla Mubarakpur.
There are 219 night shelters being run in permanent structures, porta cabins, temporary tents and community halls with a capacity of over 15,000 people.
Around three dozen officers of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) conduct a field study every night to inspect these shelters. Quite a large number of these homeless indulge in substance abuse. They consume liquor and then litter and vomit on the blankets given to them leading to unhygienic conditions. They also get into squabbles with other inmates when they are high creating security issues.
“The administration has put forth a proposal of setting up a 500-bed drug de-addiction centre to lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung to provide medical assistance and psychological counselling to addicts as part of our winter action plan,” said DUSIB Director (Assets & Management/Night Shelter) Kamal Malhotra.
The menace of drug addicts is a major cause of concern for us, particularly in night shelters located in Central Delhi and Yamuna Pushta near ISBT Kashmere Gate, which have a high concentration of homeless, Malhotra said.
Secretary of Social Welfare Department, Ashwini Kumar also stressed on the need to set up such de-addictions centres. “Under the influence of liquor or drugs, these people sometimes create very unseemly kind of an atmosphere. This is a recurrent problem faced by people who manage these night shelters and is an issue, which needs to be addressed,” Kumar said.
Also, amid questions
being raised over “unhygienic” conditions in the Delhi Government-run night
shelters, the officials from DUSIB blamed the people indulging in substance abuse responsible to a large extent for creating such conditions.