As winter sets in slowly in the national capital, the Delhi Government’s preparations are in full swing to provide a roof over the heads of almost 1.7 lakh homeless people dwelling on the streets of Delhi. The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), responsible for the homeless people, already has 196 night shelter homes (Ren Basera) up and running in the national capital. The Board is planning to set up another 62 shelters around all corners of Delhi by the first week of December as part of its preparations to help people sleeping under an open sky and braving chilly winter nights.
The 196 night shelters in Delhi are managed by several NGOs and funded by the DUSIB. A DUSIB official working with the night shelter project told The Sunday Guardian, “Our preparations for the winter are on full swing. We have already released much of the funds and the NGOs managing them have also been pressed into work round the clock for efficient management as the number of people coming to sleep at the night shelters increases manifold during the winters. The DUSIB also provides for clean bathrooms, blankets, mattresses and clean drinking water at all its night shelters.”
The Sunday Guardian visited some of the night shelters in old Delhi managed by the Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM), an NGO, to see the preparations of night shelters gearing up for the winter.
The night shelter at Chandni Chowk is just a stone’s throw away from the famous Sis Ganj Gurudwara and at around 8 p.m., the Ren Basera was already bustling with people, with many still making their way into the shelter to quickly get their place to sleep for the night.
A caretaker posted at the entrance of the hall notes down the name and hometown of the members coming to sleep here in a register. Some even produced their address proof. Each member coming to spend the night here has to pay Rs 10 and get a token issued, against which two blankets and a mattress is issued to him or her. However, all the night shelters would become free from 1 December to 15 March as an incentive for all homeless to make use of these shelters during the winters.
Brijesh, SPYM progamme director, told The Sunday Guardian, “Our preparations for the winters are on full swing. As the temperature starts falling in the coming days, the rush in all the shelters would start increasing and thus, we have already arranged for extra blankets, mattresses and drinking water facilities in all our 60 shelters across Delhi. The blankets have been washed and mattress cleaned. We also have separate rooms for senior citizens and Divyangs.”
The Fathepuri shelter home, near the Old Delhi railway station, is one of the biggest shelter homes in Old Delhi, and can accommodate around 400-450 people at one time in three different halls. The halls here are laid with daaris on the floor with some shabby and dilapidated mattresses spread over them with no pillows. Some use one of their blankets as their pillow, while another one to cover them in the night. Along with the night shelter, the Fathepuri Ren Basera also houses a children’s home for street children.
Rakesh Mohan from Chhapra, Bihar, is a daily labourer in the nearby Old Delhi Railway station and comes to sleep here regularly. “I have been pulling loaded vans here and do not earn enough money to get a room on rent. Thus, I come here regularly to sleep in the night.” The Ashriya Adhikar Abhiyaan, another NGO working towards providing night shelters, also has around 25 shelters running under its management.
The Motia Khan night shelter near Paharganj, houses around 60 homeless people and the capacity here too increases as the temperature falls. The caretaker at the Motia Khan night shelter says that not only do daily wage labourers come here, but small-time traders who come to get their orders from the nearby Sadar bazaar wholesale market also drop in at this shelter to spend their night, as they do not want to shell out the huge hotel prices in Delhi.
Ram Mehgwal, a paramilitary personnel posted in Kokrajhaar in Assam, who was spending a night at the Motia Khan shelter, told this correspondent, “I had come here to get some stuff from Sadar Bazzar, but they told me they could deliver the goods only by tomorrow morning. While wondering for a place to stay nearby, I found this place to be nice and clean. Thus, I decided to put up here as hotels are very expensive.” Apart from the male night shelters, the DUSIB also runs several female only and family only night shelters in several places in Delhi.