Enumerators will focus on clusters to count homeless

As BMC officers gears up to count the city’s homeless through the intervening night of February 28 and March 1,the enumerators have prepared a list of chronic spots where the homeless gather to spend the night in Mumbai. ‘A’ ward,or the southernmost parts of the commercial district,account for the maximum of such clusters. The number of homeless people in the city is estimated to have grown four-fold from 40,000 in 2001 to to around 1.75 lakh.

Of the 475 such spots picked to count the homeless during the night,45 are in A ward comprising Fort,Bori Bunder,Colaba,Nariman Point and Churchgate. The ‘E’ ward,including areas such as Byculla,Reay Road and Wadi Bunder,surprisingly does not have a single such spot. The wards having the least number of such spots include ‘D’ (the richest ward) and K west (Andheri) and M east (comprising mostly slum areas).

Dr Shridhar Kubal,deputy executive health officer in the BMC and in-charge of the Census operations,said a survey was carried out by BMC officials in the night to identify spots where large number of homeless people sleep in the night. The BMC will not stress on counting each and every homeless individual,but instead focus on areas where a large number of such persons retire for the night. The other wards having large number of homeless spots include ‘C’ ward (39 spots in Kalbadevi),38 spots each in H west (Bandra) and P north (malad). Dr Kubal said an average of 20 people per ward will be deputed for counting these homeless people between 11 pm and 5 am on February 28.