PEOPLE STILL SLEEP ON FOOTPATHS INSPITE OF NIGHT SHELTERS OPENED BY GOVT by Joao Sousa

PANJIM: Two months after the state government opened its first night shelter at Altinho in Panjim; it still has no takers even as hundreds of people continue to sleep on the footpaths in the state.  The Institute of Public Assistance (Provedoria) has housed the night shelter at the old age home at Altinho.

Highly placed sources in the Institute of Public Assistance, on condition of anonymity, said it is almost two months since the Institute has started the night shelter following directions from the Supreme Court of India. However, even though the facility is available free of charge, nobody seems to be availing its benefit.

The official said that night shelters are basically meant for the shelterless urban population, including street children, destitute women, migrant labourers, footpath dwellers and poor travellers on a journey.  The official further said that the police had brought an old destitute, who was abandoned at a railway station, to be kept at the night shelter. However, as she was found abandoned, she had to be taken in as an inmate of the old age home.

Stating that the night shelter at Altinho has a capacity of around 25 to 30 inmates, the official observed that it has perhaps not received the response night shelters receive in other states, because the winters here are not as chilly as in the northern states and the homeless prefer to sleep on the footpaths. Around 0.24 per cent of the population is absolutely homeless in the state, the official said and added that there is a need to identify suitable sites to set up the night shelters.

The Supreme Court of India had directed the chief secretaries of the states and administrators of the Union territories to issue necessary instructions to the concerned authorities to set up night shelters for the benefit of the homeless.

While giving the directions, it had said, "It is the bounden duty of the Union of India and the state governments to ensure at all costs that no death takes place because of lack of night shelters or basic facilities. To preserve and save the lives of the people of this country has to be given top priority by the state. No laxity or lapse on this count can be countenanced."

The ultimate goal of the National Housing and Habitat Policy, 1998 is to ensure that the basic need to Shelter for All is fulfilled in a time-bound manner and a better quality of life is provided to all the citizens of the country by harnessing the unused potential in the public, private and the household sectors. The Policy further states that till such time the goal is achieved, it is necessary to provide some kind of shelter to the absolutely shelterless urban population, including street children, destitute women and migrant labourers etc, who are in urgent need of shelter to protect themselves against the vagaries of nature all through the year. - NT