Key problems bog Delhi's winter shelters

With winter tightening its grip across the Capital, HT did a spot check of 10 homeless shelters in Delhi 

- Hemani Bhandari

Icy winds streamed through Delhi on a cold winter night. Meena Devi (35) sat on a small bed in a homeless shelter near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). A worn-out blanket kept her warm. It was 10pm. Her daughter, Ritika (8) was by her side. They had eaten and were ready to wind down. But one big worry would keep her awake — what if Ritika needed to use the toilet?

“There is no washroom nearby. The closest toilet she can use is inside the hospital, which is a kilometre away. I hope she can wait till morning,” Devi lamented.

When she visited Delhi this summer for her cancer treatment at AIIMS, she stayed on the footpath nearby. The din of traffic, the mosquitoes, reckless drivers, and the fear of unknown men on the road kept her awake at night.

But this time, she was grateful for a roof over her head. Devi, her husband and their daughter have been staying in the temporary 10-bed night shelter since Monday. This is one of roughly 250 shelter homes in pagoda tents set up by the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (Dusib) as part of the 2023-24 winter action plan, to house 2,000 people. These are over and above the 195 permanent shelters the agency runs, which can accommodate 7,092 people.

At the shelter homes, Dusib is supposed to provide mattresses, bedsheets, blankets, lockers, electricity, drinking water — and toilets.

But Devi’s walk to AIIMS with her daughter in tow each night tells a different story. Dusib has not installed a 24x7 toilet near the shelter home. A toilet run by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), adjacent to the shelter home, is open only till 7.30pm.