Sketch your House

A month after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) finally relented to duplicate the Delhi model of shelter homes in the city for over 1.5 lakh homeless,a campaign to ‘paint your house’ has started in the city,where homeless — young,old and children — will prepare their ideal shelter home and hand over the proposal to the civic authorities.

“After a continous struggle for decades,the government has finally agreed to build shelter homes in the city. We want to ensure the authorities involve those people for whom the shelter homes will be actually constructed,” said Abhishek Bharadwaj,convener of Alternative Realities,an organisation which works for the homeless.

Starting August 15,volunteers from schools and colleges will reach out to the homeless,helping them conceptualise and articulate ideas on a drawing sheet.

“We have formed small groups of volunteers,who will meet as many homeless in next one week and carry out the programme of sketching and getting their feedbacks on how the shelter home should be built,” said Shaheen Muhammed,a Mass Media student,who along with her college friends would scour the streets of Mumbai during the nights to mobilise the homeless for the campaign.

Although the Census department summed the homeless to as low as 30,000,experts believe at least 1.2 lakh people spend their nights on the streets. “Not every homeless is a beggar. Many migrants,who are skilled artisans live on the streets of Mumbai,as they are unable to buy a living space for themselves. A night shelter on minimal price will ensure their right to life with dignity,” Bharadwaj added.

The sketches and paintings,gathered in next one week,will be presented before a panel of artists and architects,following which a final draft of appeal will be sent to the BMC and the state government.