Life In The Mean Street: Winter Adds To The Woes Of Homeless And We Should All Do Our Bit

The onset of winter changes many things for most of us. Waking up early in the morning gets tougher, the churlish chiding of the winter wave compels us to cut down upon many outdoor activities while hot beverages become a customary part of our lives. Fortunate as we are, we have the luxury to cover ourselves in layers upon layers of warm clothing. But that¡¯s not all as most of our houses and offices are also pre-equipped with artificial heating facilities such as heaters and blowers that gush in warm air and curtail the bone-chilling cold of the winter.

This year, winter has already arrived in its full vigour in Delhi as well as other parts of India, and notifications of the temperature dropping significantly can be heard buzzing in offices, cafes and other places of public gathering. As it is, the sun god seems to be playing hide and sick while onlookers throng courtyards and other open areas whenever its rays manage a way through the thick clouds to touch the ground.

At the end of the day, we escape the harshness of the winter, thanks to the privileges we are either born with or have availed through our work and fortunes. But not everybody manages to do so.

Left to the mercy of the gods, the poor and the deprived, who are present in India¡¯s national capital in thousands, are braving the bone-chilling cold with little resources at their disposal, and often with no blankets or quilts to provide them with the much-needed warmth. Plastic packets, rugged tyre pieces and other discarded items that they collect over the day bring some warmth as they gather around the fire and hope for the night to pass.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a minimum temperature of 5.4 degrees Celsius was recorded in Palam on Christmas. IMD, in its weather forecast, has also predicted that dense to very dense fog in many pockets are very likely over parts of Uttar Pradesh, as well as in some pockets over Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and isolated pockets over north Rajasthan during the next five days.

Despite the availability of night shelter homes, many homeless prefer to sleep on footpaths in the biting cold citing that the accommodation provided by the government lacks basic facilities and have unhygienic conditions. There are yet larger problems around shelter homes in Delhi as many of them have become hubs of drug addicts, or have come to be dominated by gangs or lumpen-elements.

"We are forced to sleep on the footpaths as the shelter homes are dirty. Some of the drug addicts are also taking shelter there. We burn wood to warm ourselves," Mohammed Salim Khan, a homeless, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

"We do not even have a blanket to cover ourselves in this chilly winter. Here, night shelter is not very good. It was windy throughout the night, " said another homeless Zakir Hussain.

But as the temperature continues to fall further, several slums and roadside dwellers of Delhi-NCR are now making a beeline for night shelters to spend their nights in relative comfort.

"Most night shelter homes have 15 beds but around 20 to 25 people come here every night. We provide extra bedding to the remaining people and adjust somehow," Dharmendra, caretaker of a shelter home in the Akshardham temple area, was quoted as saying by news agency IANS.

On being asked about the facilities provided at the shelter home, he said: "We provide bed, blankets, pillows, drinking water and television here."

As per the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) website, a total of 62 help requests were received through the app and six were attended by the control room on telephone till date. Twenty people have been rescued on the basis of complaints. Apart from that, 17 Rescue Teams of DUSIB have shifted 3,351 homeless to the nearest shelter homes from November 15 till date.

As per the website, night occupancy in DUSIB shelters on December 21 was 9,343 (221-night shelters). However, DUSIB member Bipin Rai told IANS that there are a total of 193 permanent shelters and 66 tents.

"We also provide medical treatment to the people living in the shelter homes through our team of doctors," he said. Rai added that there are plans to serve breakfast to the people at the shelter homes in the near future. "From January 1, 2020, Delhi Shelter Board will provide tea and rusk to those living in different shelters," said Rai.

That¡¯s the government aspect of things but what about us? The only difference between us and the homeless is the privileges that we have been entitled to whereas they seem to be caught in a state of utter neglect and poverty that passes on from one generation to the next.

They do not feel any less cold than us, nor do they need blankets and warm clothing any lesser than us. So there¡¯s always something, the tiniest bit, that each of us can do to help them sail through the winter smoothly. From our discarded clothes to extra blankets and the rest, we can all surely help them in some way or the other.