Amid heavy rains in Mumbai, city’s homeless left without shelter

Mumbai rains

The heavy rain in Mumbai this week left the city’s homeless population, including children and senior citizens, without access to adequate monsoon shelter despite directions by the state-level shelter monitoring committee.

The Indian Express reported that families living under bridges, flyovers, footpaths and bus stops, who braved the rain this week, did not have easy access to shelter homes, with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) failing to set up monsoon shelters.

The BMC claims to have 23 homeless shelters in the city, but many serve specific populations like youth or women and are not readily accessible for the general homeless population during the monsoon. This situation leaves many homeless individuals without adequate shelter during heavy rains, the report added.

According to the operational guidelines for the Scheme of Shelter for Urban Homeless under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM), based on Supreme Court orders, for every one lakh urban population, provisions should be made for permanent community shelters for a minimum of one hundred persons, with at least 125 shelter homes required in Mumbai. If one has to consider the Census of India 2011, the homeless population in the city was 57,416, which would require over 500 shelter homes.

BMC’s Director of Planning Prachi Jambhekar was quoted by The Indian Express as saying that these 23 homes are as per guidelines of the NULM and the process to set up more homes across the city is underway.

The state-level committee set up under the NULM had during its last meeting in May directed the BMC for a presentation on how it is offering temporary summer shelters for the homeless and preparing to offer monsoon shelters. It had, in fact, already been pulled up in the previous meeting on August 6, 2024.

“The MCGM (Municipal Corporation for Greater Mumbai) does not have a plan for monsoon shelters. There is a difference between emergency shelters for stranded passengers and the need for extra shelters for the homeless during monsoons, as people cannot sleep on pavements during rainy season. The MCGM did not arrange for a single monsoon shelter in the last three years despite adequate advance notice and reminders by the state-level monitoring committee,” the minutes of the meeting were quoted by The Indian Express as saying.

BMC officials said temporary shelters in schools and community halls are set up during the monsoon season through its disaster management department. Ujjwal Uke, retired IAS officer, who is the chairman of the committee, told The Indian Express that for many years they have been directing the BMC to set up monsoon shelters.

“We understand that some families who have been living on the streets for many years may not necessarily want to go to a shelter but during the monsoon months want a roof over their head. There have been no extra arrangements made for these months. We are told that emergency shelters are set up in schools but we have been clarifying that those are meant for those stranded or rescued and cannot be the same as temporary shelters for the homeless,” Uke was quoted as saying, adding that these shelters have to be easy walk in and walk out for those seeking a roof temporarily.

In 2017, when a Supreme Court-appointed committee visited the city to verify the shelters, it had said that the number of shelter homes were “miniscule” for its homeless population. As per the report, it had found that six of the seven homes existing then were specifically for children and one was for males. It directed the BMC to take appropriate steps to establish shelters. The BMC had then said land availability was an issue, to which the committee said it could explore vertical designs and consider setting up porta cabins.