Study on city’s homeless
Posted on: 08/Jul/2015 12:27:48 PM
A study conducted by the Indian Community Welfare Organisation (ICWO)and the Information and Resource Centre for Deprived and Urban Communities (IRCDUC) has published a study that says that Chennai has 8325 homeless people. 72% of this section have been homeless for 30 years or so. The survey was conducted in 6 zones - Valasaravakkam, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Thiruvotiyur, Manali, Royapuram and Madhavaram.
According to a Supreme Court directive WPC No. 196/2001, the city needs 75 shelters but only 28 are operational. Speaking about this, a Corporation official said, ‘(We) will be soon opening 40 more shelters in the city, by the end of this year. We are determined to open 40 shelters in the city, but we also want NGOs to come forth and help research and identify the locations, so that we could start the homes within the vicinity of the peoples workplace.’
One of the researchers from IRCDUC said, ‘We chose these six zones as they are the hotspots, where you can find maximum number of homeless people. The situation of these people living on the streets hadn’t changed. We have conducted many surveys in the past, this time too when we went and interacted with the people. It all seemed same, their concerns and problems had not changed... 77 per cent of the homeless live on streets and had migrated to the city in search of employment. At least 99 per cent of them sleep on the roadside. The survey has also identified Royapuram with the highest number of homeless population. This area has homeless families living on streets for generations together, their places of occupation are nearby. Any programme for the urban homeless must envisage homeless shelters as a necessity. It is the first step to escape the disaster-like situation, in which they mostly find themselves in.’
