Patients, attendants brave the chill outside AIIMS, Safdarjung
NEWDELHI: Ujwala Devi, 38, from Uttar Pradesh, has been living on the pavement near gate number 2 of AIIMS Metro station for the last couple of days. She is accompanying her 45-year-old husband, who is waiting for an appointment to undergo a cataract operation at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
They arrived in the Capital last week but could not find a place in the night shelters they tried getting into. Hence, they decided to live in the open near the hospital. When it becomes chilly at night, the couple sleep in a recently opened subway in the vicinity.
Currently, over a thousand people are living outside AIIMS, as per NGO estimates. A majority of them are outstation patients and their families, who have come for treatment at AIIMS or Safdarjung Hospital. Most of them cannot afford to travel regularly and lack of proper accommodation forces them to sleep in the cold. They either live in the subway, in tents or the open.
In light of the large number of outstation people like Devi taking refuge outside the AIIMS campus, the government and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) set up five big tents and one portacabin in the vicinity of AIIMS. At least 300 people can be accommodated in these shelters.
DUSIB CEO Shurbir Singh said that arrangements have been made to ensure that people, especially who come from other states, do not sleep in the open. “On December 16, 2017, the subway opened at night so that more people could sleep under its roof. This subway can accommodate around 350 people. Besides, we are also running a permanent shelter home near Rajgariya Dharmshala near Safdarjung Hospital,” said Singh.
Sunil Kumar Aledia, executive director of Centre for Holistic Development, however, said that the capacity of the existing shelters is not sufficient to accommodate all the outstation patients and their caretakers. “Lack of health facilities in their states forces them to travel and come to the Capital for treatment. A majority of them are from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar,” said Aledia.
“If it had not been for my husband’s medical treatment, we would not be staying here. The night shelters here are very crowded. Sometimes, people living in tent shelters and the subway pity us and give us space at night,” said Devi.
Devi and her husband share the Metro station pavement with at least ten other persons like them, in addition to stray dogs and beggars. A heap of garbage lies in a corner. Women can be seen washing clothes in another. A public toilet lies in the vicinity. “For food and water, we are dependent on voluntary organisations and langars,” Devi said.
Singh added that most people stay in shelter homes but there are some—mostly beggars or drug addicts—who live in the open and refuse to go to the shelters.
“In such cases we convey the message to the sub-divisional magistrate as we cannot forcibly remove anyone,” said Singh.