Family ties keep women away from dedicated night shelter

The women,however,have the option of escaping the biting cold and the discomfort of constant traffic noise by checking in at the New Delhi Municipal Council’s (NDMC) night shelter for women on R K Roy Marg — barely 100 yards from Devi’s makeshift dwelling.

A choice Devi,like most homeless women in the city,happily forsakes to ensure that she stays close to her family. “Here we share all our happiness and pain,and resist the police in unity. I can’t leave my family behind,” she says.

The result: The shelter,which opened for the season on December 15,has not recorded even a single entry till date.

In fact,a caretaker of the shelter says the facility gets a maximum of two to three entries every season,that too only when it is raining.

The NDMC launched the shelter in 2005 — it can house more than 150 women in its 17 rooms. The building,used earlier as a school,is open for two and a half months every year during the winter. Four or five caretakers employed at the shelter keep the premises clean.With its neat tin roof,the facility is better than many others in the city. But due to scant interest shown by homeless women in the area,the purpose of the shelter seems to be lost.

“Year after year,the place remains empty. We have enough blankets and mats to take care of the homeless,but the women never come,” says a caretaker.

Under the Moti Bagh flyover,almost 50 people huddle together for the night,but all women say they cannot leave their families behind.

Devi,mother of a four-month-old girl,says the cold is the least of her worries. The police can drive her family away anytime,she fears. “If I leave my brother-in-law and my husband behind and go to the shelter for the night,the next morning I may not find them again,” she says. Devi’s family has been living in the area for the last 25 years,since her parents migrated from to the city a village in Maharashtra.

The caretakers say they have requested the NDMC to open the shelter to families,but no action has been taken so far.