Apparently, Supreme Court had issued orders on 5th May 2010 to build night shelters for people sleeping on the sidewalks and the footpaths. Yet up till no action has been taken in this regard and no such facility has been given to the people spending their nights on the roads. It was just a couple of days ago when a committee was formed under the supervision of Retired Judge of Supreme Court Kailash Gambhir. This committee has made a report for the night shelters that are there in Mumbai. On the basis of this report and National Urban Income Plan, there is zero existence of night shelters in the city of Mumbai. In spite of orders from the Supreme Court, the municipal corporation along with the state government did not take any action in this regard even after so many years. Hence, the Supreme Court has demanded to present a report in this regard within 15 days of time.
What is it that the Supreme Court ordered?
Certain social institutions went onto to file pleas in the court with regards to the building of night shelters in the city. During the hearing of this plea, the court on 5 May 2010 ordered to build one lakh night shelters in the city, however, this order had no bearing on the leaders of the state government or the officials at BMC.
Places in Mumbai that have night shelters:
•Near Wankhede Stadium (A Ward)
•Kamathipura, Khetwadi, Bandra, Andheri East, Kandivali East, Malad West, Kurla
State of night shelters in the city:
The Department of City Development and BMC have asserted that all the night shelters remain opened till 9:00 p.m. in the night. Moreover, 22 night shelters are being built whereas 25 more have to be built yet. However, the social institutions and Gambhir’s committee holds this assertion as untrue.
Further, Kailash Gambhir, in this regard told Mumbai Live that all these shelters are not in a good condition and do not have even the basic facilities. BMC and the state-related departments have instructed to build night shelters that provide good night shelters for the underprivileged.
He further added that we can’t keep cribbing over the so-called problem of lack of space in Mumbai. He gave clear orders to Mumbai Port Trust and Railway to allot land spaces for the building of night shelters. He has further asked Manisha Mhaskar, the Urban Development secretary, BMC Commissioner Ajay Mehta and the Administrative Chief for Municipal Corporation Virendra Singh to present a roadmap within 15 days.
On the other hand, Alka Sasane, Assistant Commissioner for BMC said that 25 night shelters are being constructed in the city and 9 night shelters out of the proposed 22 are still being worked on wherein the kids reside. Aside of this, the hunt for land spaces for building three more night shelters is still going on.
As per the sources of Mumbai Live, the number of people sleeping on the sidewalks in Mumbai is too much. Looking at these figures, 125 more night shelters are needed. Although the social institutions are running night shelters for the kids the committee has expressed its concern over the sloppiness exhibited in their construction.