Anantapur: Civic bodies cold to homeless people despite Supreme Court fiat

Anantapur-Puttaparthi : As per a recent survey conducted by the Urban Community Development (UCD) wing, there are around 1,200 to 1,500 homeless people living in various places in Anantapur, Hindupur, Puttaparthi, Kadiri, Dharmavaram, Tadapatri, Guntakal, Kurnool, Adoni, Nandyal, Dhone and Yemmiganur.

Despite Supreme Court’s directions to the civic bodies in the country to open homes for the homeless, not one such has been opened in the district.

One can find homeless people sleeping with or without blankets across pavements, platforms of railway stations, government hospitals and underneath flyovers.

There is not a single shelter home in Anantapur, Sathyasai district and in major municipalities in Kurnool and Nandyal districts. Over the years, the municipal corporations made no effort to either counsel or provide a permanent solution to the shelter-less, whose number never crossed 500 even in odd seasons. Instructions have remained on paper all these years and officials were in no mood to clarify on why the civic body has failed to accommodate the homeless, who have to brave bone-chilling cold and rain.

Some of those sleeping on footpaths, under flyover bridges, railway stations and bus stations gather around fires to get protection from the cold. Municipal officials are, apparently, oblivious of the Supreme Court’s directions to all civic bodies to provide shelter to all homeless people.

The Central government advised authorities to mobilise homeless persons by identifying hotspots where they congregate, by taking up a bi-weekly survey in each hotspot and then shift them to shelters for urban homeless (SUH). HIV, Covid tests and basic health check-ups should be conducted on them and a database of their records must be maintained, it said.

However, no such effort was made by the district administration but to sound politically correct, the municipalities have been issuing official releases claiming that they are geared up to provide shelter to the homeless in winters. Over five years, it has been claiming that it has initiated a series of measures, including renovation of existing night shelters and providing more facilities at these homes.

The main objective is to see that no one is left on the streets in winter. They can go to shelter homes where there are mattresses, woollen blankets and other facilities. Like every year, instructions were given to all municipal commissioners to set up temporary shelter homes and, if necessary, use community halls for the purpose. None of the officials were ready to comment on the issue.

The urban homeless survive with many challenges like no access to elementary public services such as health, education, food, water and sanitation.