States fail to ease plight of homeless

State governments have paid little or no attention to the Supreme Court's orders to set up permanent shelters for the homeless, according to the 'National Report on Homelessness'.

The Supreme Court commissioners that monitored the state of night shelters for the poor and destitute rued that at least 3 million homeless across the country had to sleep outdoors, bearing freezing winter nights.

They noted that all 15 states studied were in partial or complete violation of SC orders to set up permanent shelters for the homeless.

Delhi was required to set up 129 permanent shelters for the homeless but only 64 have come up. Of these, only 41 were permanent in nature and 21 were found shut.

"The 21 shelters are underutilized and in majority cases locked. Homeless are not aware of those shelters. Shelters are located in places which are too difficult to identify. The occupied shelters are only for men and no separate space for women in those. The basic amenities provided in the shelters are very poor," the commissioners said in their report, first published by the Times of India daily.

The states, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh were able to complete 30-60% of the required shelters. Ten states put up only 20-30% of the shelters required to house the poor. These include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

Two states that had not set up even 20% of their targeted shelters were Maharashtra and West Bengal. In both the states, no functional shelters reportedly exist till date.

The commissioners said there were no reasons the poor performing states could give out for such delays. "Two years have elapsed now since the court first directed the states; one winter has given way to another and to another; monsoons have come and gone by," the report said.

"The Supreme Court has reviewed the case on more than 10 occasions and has periodically guided the governments with support from office of the commissioners of the Supreme Court to ensure implementation of the SC directions."

The commissioners said that even where the shelters existed, in many cases the most basic facilities were not there. A place for women was a rarity and concerns of sanitation were ignored.

Besides the states, the commissioners noted that the Centre too had failed in formulating a policy to provide for the homeless in the country.