Some still avoid Noida shelter home for lack of clean toilets, facilities

With the frosty winters in the NCR regions, the homeless in the city are finding it difficult to bear the extreme cold. This is due to a harsh cold snap that made temperatures drop to nearly the freezing point in the areas.

Though the night shelters of the city are functional and are giving some respite to people living without any shelter in the city, women and children do not want to stay in the shelters because there are no separate arrangements for them. Drunken occupants create ruckus and therefore, the women folk do not feel safe there.

On visiting one of the shelter homes at Noida Stadium a group of drug addicts and alcoholics were seen creating nuisance among people staying in the shelter home.

Rajesh Tiwari, an occupant of the shelter home told us that a group of alcoholics daily comes there at night and trouble other people living there.

While the authority claims that there is no dearth of facilities for the homeless, the latter say that hygiene and safety are the major problems and there is a need of little effort to make it work for the betterment of residents here.   

A shortage of blankets in the shelter home was evident on the visit. With an average footfall of 40 people everyday, a crisis of blankets was seen.

The occupants of shelter home are also facing problems in arranging food for them as there is no cheap dhaba nearby and they have to sleep empty stomach. On further bringing the concern of the occupants to his knowledge, executive engineer of Noida authority, Subhash Chand Mishra said: “We cannot refuse entry to those who come here in search of a safe place to sleep. Our priority is to protect people from this biting cold. We will take necessary actions if any matter is reported to us.”

Noida has just one shelter home in the district located at the Noida stadium. Some people also claimed that they find it hard to reach the shelter home and somehow manage to sleep here or there in this chilling winter season. A daily wage labourer always prefers to stay near a place where he works and therefore he has to manage somehow.