A survey commissioned by the Delhi government has pegged the number of shelterless people in the city at 46,788 after an actual headcount. People from UP and Bihar account for about 70 per cent of the shelterless in the city. The OBCs constitute 45 per cent of the homeless, while the scheduled castes constitute about 34 per cent.
The survey reveals that only a little over one third of the shelterless knew about night shelters and among them nearly 70 per cent decided not to sleep in the shelters.
Majority of the shelterless who decided not to sleep in the night shelters considered them unsafe. The survey, commissioned by the social welfare department of the Delhi government, has revealed that 84 per cent (39,465) of the homeless are men and rest 15.65 per cent (7,323) are women. The interesting fact is that men on an average send about `12,000 annually to their families at their native place, while women save half of their income.
The survey results show that most of the shelterless people are engaged in construction work and earn between `70 and `100 on an average. Majority of the shelterless (63 per cent) have monthly income of about `2,000 to `3,000.
In an indictment of the health department’s efforts to immunise every child in the city against polio, the survey reveals that only two out of the total sample of 1,997 took advantage of the Pulse Polio immunisation programme.
The survey further revealed that 90 per cent of the shelterless are in working age group, while elders accounted only for three per cent. Most of the shelterless do not consult doctors, the survey reveals in another indictment of the health department.
The survey results show that majority of the shelterless children either beg or are engaged as domestic servants. Also, only nine of the shelterless people are graduates, while illiteracy rate among them is quite high. The survey has further pegged the estimated number of shelterless in the city at 1,41,091 by 2016.