Critically-ill cancer patients from across the country are among the hundreds of people who are forced to take shelter outside the premises of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi’s bone-chilling cold, as the minimum temperature here plunged to 4.8 degrees Celsius on Saturday, the second lowest temperature of the season.
Ramesh Yadav, 45, from Bihar, a throat cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy sessions, has been staying outside AIIMS Metro station gate for the last two months. “I came here two months ago. Initially it was manageable but now my life has become a nightmare. But I can't even go back,” Mr. Yadav says, his feeble hands trembling as he takes out a bunch of medical documents from a tattered plastic bag.
In fact, a large number of families, from neighbouring as well as distant States such as West Bengal, have been forced to make the open space outside the AIIMS metro station, their temporary accommodation, owing to inadequate space in the night shelters and ‘dharamshalas’.
According to the AIIMS administration, the premier hospital has provision for about 700 people at ‘dharamshalas’ and other shelters in and around the hospital. Recently, in collaboration with CRPF, the hospital set up a temporary 40-bed night shelter outside its dental centre.
