A long night with the homeless

Identification of spots where the homeless spend the night started with the second phase of the Census on February 9. Enumerators kept a watch over such sites,including corridors of markets,bus stands,shelter homes and other places where the homeless returned every night.

On Monday night,teams were spread out in all sectors with particular areas allotted to each. Starting their walk from one corner of a street,every person the team met was asked: “Kya aapki janganana ho gayi hai? (Have you been enumerated?)”

With a torch in one hand and her bag containing the forms in another,Indu had volunteered for the Monday night duty. “We have to go to places where there is no light and hence I am carrying a torch. Tonight,we have to ensure that no one is left out. While enumerators had been going to various sectors,counting the homeless becomes difficult with many of them not being able to give all the requisite information,” she said,walking on the streets of Sector 22 along with her team members.

All of them dressed in identical jackets and caps bearing the census logo attracted many curious onlookers trying to see what the fuss was about.

As the team approached a corner of the market in Sector 22,a man was seen sitting in the corridor cooking food on a kerosene stove. Since he had not been enumerated,the questioning began. It turned out that the particular spot had been his ‘home’ for the last 15 years. His wife and two children also stay there. The couple go to work and children to school in the morning and they all return by night.

“I work in this shop in the morning. When it shuts,I spread a cloth on the ground and stay here. I had initially thought of taking a house,but my wife refused to stay there alone and I could not leave this place. Who can afford the rent of a house anyways? My children go to school and are learning English,” he said.

As the team moved ahead,a group of rickshaw pullers could be seen eating their dinner. Soon,they gathered around the team to get themselves enumerated. One of them knew his year of birth,but questions on the date and month drew a blank.

Another was seen trying to help an illiterate friend by giving his information. As Supriya,who was part of the team,asked his age,the friend carefully looked at his faded voter I-card and said: “In 2002,he was 22,please calculate the age accordingly.”

Questions about the language they know drew a mixed response. One of them said: “When we talk among ourselves,we speak Bhojpuri,but you write Hindi. I also know Punjabi as I have been pulling rickshaw in the city for a long time now.”

The team then met another family of a husband,a wife and their three children who have been residing near the Nehru Park in Sector 22 for the last decade. The head of the family,a disabled man,said his children were going to school,but they could not afford a house.

Talking to Newsline while on duty on Monday,Census Officer A S Thakur said: “In one stretch in Sector 22,we enumerated nearly 300 homeless people. The teams have been instructed to enumerate everyone till midnight so that no one is left out. Even tourists in the city as well as babies born till midnight will be part of the census.”

Enumerators were deployed at the hospitals and nursing homes where they waited outside labour rooms to count the newborns. Tourists staying in various hotels were asked if they had been enumerated in their hometowns.

It was a long night indeed!