No end to problems at night shelters in Delhi

Gulshan trembles as she wraps a wafer-thin blanket around herself and her children — aged 4 and 6. The woman, in her 20s, and her young children have sought refuge from Delhi’s relentless winter at a night shelter in Meena Bazaar near Jama Masjid.

But their stay there is not without a raft of troubles.

“This cot is on rent — we pay ₹30 per day for it. All three of us huddle on this,” she said.

There are few beds in the barebones shelter and many are forced to make do with worn-out mattresses placed on the floor.

Haseena, 40, another inmate, said, “The mattresses here are completely worn out, and there is no bedsheet or pillow.”

This past week, Delhi has recorded a sharp drop in temperature, logging a minimum below 5°C on four of the past seven days. The bitter cold has driven hundreds of the city’s homeless to shelter homes scattered across the Capital.

But many of these facilities, managed by the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (Dusib), remain rudimentary, with inmates struggling to stay warm and safe.

Dusib’s winter action plan for 2024-25 states that Delhi has 197 operational night shelters with a combined capacity of 7,092 people. These shelters are supposed to provide basic amenities, including mattresses, blankets, drinking water, and functional toilets.

But inmates said that more often than not, these facilities operate without electricity or functional toilets, while mattresses, bedsheets and blankets are flimsy and unwashed.

Sunil Kumar, executive director at the non-profit Centre for Holistic Development, said the quality of shelter homes in the city is vastly inadequate.

“There is a lack of blankets, mattresses, lockers and security arrangements in almost all the night shelters in the city. There is no standard operating procedure on the washing or cleaning of the bedsheets, mattresses and blankets,” he said.

HT reached out to DUSIB, and a senior official, on condition of anonymity, said all necessary precautions for cleaning and maintenance are in place, but all feedback will be looked into.

During a spot-check on Monday, HT found that inmates face an acute shortage of two essential needs – toilets and potable water.

Vijendra Kumar, an occupant at the Lahori Gate shelter home, hobbled around with a broken ankle. “The doors of the toilets are missing. I can’t even relieve myself in peace,” he said.

A caretaker at the Meena Bazaar facility said, “We have eight toilets for 300 occupants.”

He admitted that the few toilets in place are filthy, but said staffers there have not been paid for at least three months, which has demotivated them from working.

DUSIB did not comment on allegations that staffers at these shelters have not been paid.

Potable water is also not available at these shelters, and inmates often have no option but to drink whatever water they can find. “People get water from nearby temples or shops,” said Anil Singh, an occupant of the Meena Bazaar shelter.

At some shelters, inmates are housed in tents erected within the existing structure. However, inmates complained, these tents are often torn, which allows cold air to drift and thus defeating the purpose of these shelters.

A similar spot check has been conducted by HT at such facilities over the past few years, and all have yielded nearly the same result – woefully inadequate facilities for thousands of people with no place to turn to seeking refuge from the cold.

Another pressing concern at shelter homes is safety — fights between residents are common, especially at all-male facilities.

The Fatehpuri night shelter, an all-male facility near the Old Delhi railway station, is notorious for brawls — sometimes over an extra blanket, sometimes for a better place to sleep. Staff there said that the lack of security arrangements means there is no deterrent to the regular scuffles.

“Since the temperatures dropped, the occupancy here has risen through the roof. That increases the likelihood of any mishap as at night we are just on our own, without any security staff,” said a caretaker at the facility, on condition of anonymity.

Paradoxically, stricter security measures can also cause problems.

At the Badarpur shelter, Suraj (goes by one name), one of the caretakers, said that police have asked staffers to record identification details of inmates who stay at the shelter. “However, this is a hindrance, since many of the people who come to stay at these shelters do not have any ID, and if we turn them away, they must sleep in the open,” Suraj said.