Odisha district begins drive to shift homeless people to shelters on winter nights

To ensure that no one sleeps under the open sky on winter nights, the Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC) has formed three night squads to shift people found along the roadsides to Shelters for Urban Homeless (SUH).

Enforcement Officer of the SMC, Subhankar Mohanty, said like the previous year, the three squads-- one for Sambalpur, Burla and Hirakud -- are moving around the city at night and interacting with the people, near the railway station, and bus stands and hospitals, for whom the open sky is their only roof.

After getting their consent, the squad members are shifting those homeless people to the nearest SUH, he said.

There are four Shelters for Urban Homeless in the city.

There is a SUH at the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH), while the other three facilities are located at Badbazar in Sambalpur, Burla and Hirakud in the SMC area.

According to SMC officials, the SUH at Badbazar in Sambalpur can accommodate up to 100 people and the facilities at Burla and Hirakud can accommodate 50 people each.

The SUH on the premises of the DHH can provide shelter to 35 people but it mainly caters to the attendants of patients who come to the DHH.

Women Self-Help Groups (WHGs) are managing the SUHs in the city now, said Mohanty.

“We will soon put up banners and hoardings appealing to the people to apprise the civic body if they find any homeless person sleeping under the open sky on a wintry night. The mobile numbers of the members of the three squads will also be displayed in the banners and hoardings,” he said.