Monsoon brings with it nightmare for shelter dwellers

NEW DELHI: Monsoon never bring good news for residents who stay at the urban shelters of the Capital. Like every year, leakages from the roof, broken walls and lack of space at the urban shelters maintained by Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) have become nightmares for residents.

While DUSIB officials assured necessary steps taken for these shelters, shelter residents are less than impressed with these claims.

"The occupancy in the time of monsoon increases every year. We try to accommodate as many as people possible to protect them from the rain," said an official of a night shelter at Kashmiri Gate. He added that infrastructural problems exist, but the Delhi government and the DUSIB work together to repair the sheds.

"We try to arrange food and, of course, we do not want the people staying in condition with water leakage," he said.

The people who stay there, however, complained that the condition of the shelters are very poor and during monsoon, the problems increase.

"We do not get space to sleep. On one side, there is excessive water leakage, which makes the floor and the beds wet. On the other, water from the streets comes inside," said Rakesh Singh, who stays at the Kashmiri Gate shelter. He further said that officials also bring many people to the shelters without registrations.

"As the demand is high, they bring more and more people. They do not even register but stay here which creates more problems," Kumar said. Others staying in the shelter said the same.

In 2015, when the Aam Aadmi Party came to power, it tried to revamp the services that the state provides for the homeless in winters.

To ensure no one dies due to exposure to the cold, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal issued orders for setting up of new night shelters.