Chennai’s homeless have voter IDs, but no ration cards: Study

CHENNAI: A socio-economic study has revealed that 84% of the city’s

homeless

have valid voter ID cards, but only a few of them have access to the government welfare schemes. Of those who were surveyed, only 16% have ration cards.


The study, covering 2,329 individuals, was conducted in February across Chennai,

Madurai

and Coimbatore by four groups working for the

urban homeless

. It highlighted the gaps in the work done to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate homeless people across these cities. The study found that most of the work ends at the construction of shelters for the homeless, under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM), due to lack of policy, non-convergence of schemes and non-allocation of funds by the state government.

“Construction of shelters alone is funded under the NULM. Operating the shelters needs budgetary allocation. There should be a separate corpus in the state government to run the shelters. Implementation of schemes comes under specific state government departments which needs better convergence,” said Vanessa Peter, policy researcher of IRCDUC ( Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities) that carried out the survey in Chennai.

Many living on the footpaths leading to the Broadway bus depot said they all have voter ID cards that mention a non-existent door number and the street name. Around 70% of the homeless in Chennai surveyed were found to be families who have been on the streets for decades. Around 46% of them were found to be engaged in more than one job every day, while 27% took to begging.

“Councillors would ensure they get voter ID cards. But have done nothing to give them ration cards,” said Vanessa, adding that the people on the streets are vote banks for politicians. Even those living in the corporation shelters don’t have ration cards.

The study also found that access to healthcare was available to most homeless with several families living in areas that have a government hospital within a few kilometres. Only 14% of the respondents in the city said that they have no access to healthcare.

However, government hospitals across the state shy away from taking in homeless patients and insist on having an attender, the study found.

Greater Chennai Corporation

officials told TOI that public hospitals do insist on having attenders for those admitted, shelter coordinators sign up as attenders but treatment is assured.

“The plan to get ration cards for the homeless has been there since last year but no decision has come from the higher-ups. Ration cards, however, have been provided to people with mental illness living in shelters,” said an official.