Urban homeless: Social gap widens without policy
BMC to conduct survey of homeless people; SC committee says state govt’s 2020 survey inadequate
To rehabilitate the homeless population in the country's financial capital and to help them to get into the mainstream, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be formulating a policy after conducting a survey census of homeless. However a committee appointed by the Supreme Court to monitor shelters in the state has earlier this year refused to accept the report of the state government’s first-ever survey (in 2020) of the homeless “extremely inadequate”.
The BMC plans to conduct a city wide survey, formulate a policy and has planned to set up a skill centre where they will be trained and made self-reliant. The civic body’s announcement came on October 9, a day before ‘World Homeless Day, which is observed on October 10.
The findings of the survey, conducted from August 2020 till December 2020 revealed that there are 21,000 homeless people in the state of which 11,915 were counted in Mumbai. However, the 2011 census, the most recent, showed that there were 57,415 homeless people in Mumbai alone.
The number has NGO's working for and with homeless people have alleged that the data is false. "The number of homeless in the city is being downplayed by the state government and the BMC. According to our estimate and on ground study there are not less than two lakh homeless people in Mumbai alone. The state government hired a Hyderabad based firm to conduct the survey. The firm which was not even familiar to localities here and eventually, many homeless were left out of the survey. It is high time for the state government to formulate a detailed policy for a long term solution to the issues of the homeless, then come out with a circular or guidelines. Also, just building shelters is not enough, homeless in the city are in dire need of a proper rehabilitation. Of the total homeless population in the city 70 per cent are families and remaining 30 per cent are individuals," said Brijesh Arya, of Homeless Collective, an umbrella organisation of several NGOs which work for homeless people, Arya is also a member of the SC-appointed committee.
He added: "I welcome BMC's decision to start a survey of homeless in the city and plan to formulate policy. We have submitted our recommendations too. In order to prevent a result like the previous state wide survey, we have requested the BMC to include local NGOs working with and for the homeless this time."
According to SC guidelines, cities with a population of more than 5 lakh should have homeless shelters for 100 persons and one shelter per one lakh population. Going by this, Mumbai should have at least 125 shelters but presently has only 19. The survey submitted last year was conducted by a Hyderabad-based firm VMax in 250 local urban bodies in the state, including Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, Ulhasnagar and Vasai-Virar, following an order from the Supreme Court. The aim was to determine how many night shelters the state needs for its homeless population.
The state-level committee pointed out a massive gap in the state government conducted survey through third parties, and has questioned the Mumbai civic body's intent to keep its promise of constructing adequate shelters.
Ujjwal Uke, head of the state level Shelter Monitoring
Committee and task force, said that the state wide survey conducted last year has failed to include so many homeless people,“it cannot be used as a base document”.
“In the meeting held last month, we did not accept the report of last year's survey. Number of homeless that have come out in that survey do not reflect the true picture of the situation of the homeless population in Mumbai. We had a meeting with BMC commissioner IS Chahal in August, and he took the issue very seriously. Following which the Mumbai civic body announced the survey. I expect this survey planned by BMC will be much better and clearer than the previous one. Based on the findings of the survey, the BMC will formulate a draft policy, and we will also contribute our ideas. The same will then be submitted to the state Government." Uke said.