Berhampur: Till a fortnight ago, his rickshaw used to be the home for Dayanidhi Nayak and his family comprising his wife and two children. A rickshaw puller of Laxminarayanpur under Sankhemundi block, Dayanidhi and his family used to spend the nights in his rickshaw on the roadside.
However, those difficult days are now a thing of past for this family as they have been provided a shelter in the night shelter home set up by the Berhampur Municipal Corporation just opposite Payal Cinema hall here.
“I have been pulling rickshaw in this town for 32 years. At the end of the day I have something between Rs 100 and Rs 200 in my pocket. As I have been unable to get a rented accommodation with my meager income, my family and I spent the nights under the open sky, be it rains or cold,” says Dayanidhi.
“More often than not we were harassed by policemen and anti-socials. Those days of hardship have passed. We are now able to have peaceful sleep. A fortnight ago, someone informed me about the night shelter and I brought my family to the shelter,” an exalted Dayanidhi said while leaving the shelter home with his rickshaw for the day’s work.
There are hundreds of homeless people who are not as fortunate as Dayanidhi. They are still forced to spend the nights on footpaths and verandahs of shops as they are not aware of the shelter home facility.
Every day men and women from nearby areas as well as neighbouring districts come to this town, a business town in south Odisha, in search of jobs. Most of them earn their livelihood by working as daily wage labourers, pulling rickshaws or begging.
After a day of hard work, they, some with their families, spend the nights on footpaths, at bus stands, railway station and even on rickshaws.
Bowing to the demands from different sections of the society for a night shelter for these homeless people, the Berhampur Municipal Corporation constructed the present night shelter home at a cost of Rs 40 lakh. This building has facilities like beds, bed sheets and toilets and can accommodate 60 men and women.
The night shelter home was inaugurated December 1, 2018. Although two months have passed since the inauguration of this night shelter home, many homeless people are still not aware of the facility, leaving the purpose of the shelter home defeated.
Against its capacity, only five people – two rickshaw pullers, including Dayanidhi, and three beggars – are currently taking shelter in this facility, sources said.
When asked why the homeless people are not availing the facility, different people gave different reasons. According to them, people without AADHAR card, voter identity card, ration card or a pension document, are not allowed to stay at the night shelter home.
Biren Mitra, the manager of the night shelter home, said, “Only people in the age group of 45 and 60 years are permitted to use the night shelter home. They also need to produce an identity card. However, we are providing identity card to people who do not have any.”
When contacted, BMC commissioner Chakraborty Singh Rathore said that efforts are on to get more and more homeless people take shelter here.
Meanwhile a Delhi-based organistation has conducted a survey of city dwellers who do not have roof over their heads. Once the report is received, efforts will be intensified to bring them to the shelter home. The city dwellers are being made aware of the facility through posters.
Some city denizens say that the distance between the shelter home and some areas like the railway station, Bad Bazaar and San Bazaar is another factor that is keeping many homeless away from the shelter home.
Notably, the night shelter home is being managed by an NGO named V.J.S.S. under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM). For the smooth running of the home, eight staff – one manager, two community mobilisers, three care-takers, one sweeper and one sanitation worker have been appointed as per the guidelines of NULM. The job of the community mobilisers is to create awareness about the night shelter home through posters, banners and leaflets at different programmes of NULM and BeMC.
If the information received from NULM sources is anything to go by, the occupants of the night shelter home are soon going to get lunch and dinner too.
PNN