Kancheepuram Municipality has announced some families earning their livelihood by picking the wastes in the civic body’s compost yard as the beneficiaries of the Shelter for Urban Homeless (SUH) scheme.
A total of 75 persons from a dozen families and some individuals, residing near thecompost yard at Thiruveethipallam, were shifted to the newly-constructed building at Panchupettai in Big Kancheepuram area recently. The shelter constructed at a cost of ₹50 lakh under the SUH scheme, would be maintained by the Dindigul-based non-governmental organisation.
While the caretaker organisation would ensure common facilities and also provide healthy and hygienic food at an affordable rate to the inmates, the civic body’s role would be to link them with the Anganwadi, PHC, childcare facilities and other social assistance programmes.
Initially, the government would be providing a sum of ₹ 9 lakh every year for five years for maintenance of the shelter. During this period, the organisation was expected to create sufficient corpus fund for smooth maintenance after five years.
They could collect nominal charges as rent from the beneficiaries and also by selling food to the inmates. In addition to this, they might also call for donations from the philanthropists and other social service organisations.
Besides providing a conducive atmosphere for living in a dignified manner, the organisation should conduct awareness programmes and help the inmates to take up better jobs when they moved out of the shelter.
