Fight for survival: With limited shelters, homeless left to face the elements in open

New Delhi: After a day’s hard work, it was disappointing for Pawan, who earns Rs 10-50 a day pushing a loaded rickshaw, not to find a bed in the two winter shelters in Kashmere Gate on Friday night.

- Priyangi.Agarwal

At both the shelters for the homeless, the beds were all taken up by the time he reached there. Pawan had no option but to brave the night under the winter sky.

Lying on a tarpaulin sheet and a piece of foam, Pawan covered himself and another laborer, Shankar, with a bedsheet and a thin blanket. “As a laborer, I hardly earn Rs 100 per day, not even enough for basic expenses. My work gets over by 8 pm, but the night shelters are fully occupied by then because most people start arriving there around 6 pm,” shrugged Pawan, who was among the 15 homeless found sleeping on a pavement near north Delhi’s Monastery flyover on Friday. Shankar added, “It is freezing cold in the open, but what choice do we have?”

With the temperature dipping, the homeless are turning to night shelters to brave the cold. As most of them are fully occupied by 8 pm, many of them are forced to spend the night in the open. Mukul Pal, another labourer, said, “I managed to sleep for two nights at a shelter home. However, I was late on Friday and when I visited the temporary shelter home, all 10 beds were occupied. Left with no option, I joined my friends on the pavement.”