At a time when the Visakhapatnam authorities are boasting of the ‘smart city’ tag, the infrastructure available to rehabilitate the homeless and the destitute appears to be far from adequate. Going by the statistics, it’s not sufficient even to cater to the needs of at least 10 % of the homeless.
A survey conducted by Association of Urban and Tribal Development (AUTD), a government recognised NGO that runs shelter homes, has revealed that the city has at least 20,000 homeless and the infrastructure available is capable of handling around 500 at best at a time.
As per the survey, around 1% of the 20 lakh population of the city are homeless and only eight shelter homes, including the one run by the government, are available.
Supreme Court guidelines
According to former bureaucrat E.A.S. Sarma, the Supreme Court guidelines prescribes one shelter home with a capacity of minimum 100 beds for every one lakh population. “Given the numbers, we are far away from reaching that figure,” he pointed out.
The AUTD has three homes including one for women, with 145 inmates. Apart from these, there are three homes located at Bhupesh Nagar, near the Collector’s office and Arilova, run by government-funded NGOs and one more run by the Department of Women and Child Welfare.
“Altogether, the homes cater to the needs of 400 homeless which include senior citizens, women and destitute,” said Pragada Vasu of the AUTD.
What master plan says
Referring to the City’s Master Plan, he said the document suggests setting up of one children home, one old age home and one home for working men (daily migrant workers) in each zone, but it is yet to be a reality.
The homeless in the city include elders neglected by their families, people suffering from chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer or HIV/AIDS, destitute women who fled their houses due to domestic violence, migrant workers and project displaced persons.
Left in the lurch
According to Mr. Vasu, around 10% of the total homeless in the city are either mentally challenged or suffering from depression. “We have conducted a study on 600 homeless persons and found that around 60 and odd people are suffering from mental disorder,” he said.
Apart from setting up more number of homes, the authorities must plan homes exclusively for the physically and mentally challenged and introduce programmes to rehabilitate them, E.A.S. Sarma added.
