Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry issues advisory on the provision of free food to urban homeless under NULM shelters

Senior journalist Chandrakala Choudhury in this article encapsulates how the country is gripped by the fear of Coronavirus. Also, normal lives have been paralyzed and the downtrodden section of the society has been rendered homeless, deprived of food and other necessities amid the lockdown. Apart from this, instructions have been issued to all the State governments and State urban livelihood missions to sanitize and disinfect all the shelters as per the guidelines of Ministry of health and family welfare.

New Delhi: The country is gripped by the fear of Coronavirus, pertinent to which Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared 21 days of nation-wide lockdown to contain the spread of the virus.

Amid the lockdown, normal lives have been paralyzed and the downtrodden section of the society has been rendered homeless, deprived of food and other necessities.

Given the growing plight among people, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has made a provision of free food for the urban homeless in the National Urban-Livelihoods Mission (NULM) shelters during the period of nationwide lockdown, in an advisory issued recently.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Sanjay Kumar, Joint Secretary and Mission Director, DAY-NULM, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said "Deen Dayal Antyoda Yojna-National Urban Livelihood Mission (DAY-NULM) maintains about 1500 shelters having the capacity of 1 lakh persons for the Urban homeless across the country.

During the period of lockdown, the urban homeless may face hardships due to possible loss of livelihoods. Keeping that in mind, the MoHUA has made a provision of three meals a day for inmates".

"Apart from this, instructions have been issued to all the State governments and State urban livelihood missions to sanitize and disinfect all the shelters as per the guidelines of Ministry of health and family welfare.

In addition to that, we have also told the State Urban Livelihood Missions to make the inmates aware about the do's and don'ts and they should be properly educated about the norms on social distancing, washing hands and other issues", he told ETV Bharat.

Further, the Joint Secretary informed that the ministry is also instructing the urban local bodies to identify buildings which can be used in future as possible quarantine centres or isolation blocks if the need arises. It has also issued special instructions to the municipalities to have special sanitation drives across all the cities to check the spread of the virus.

"All the urban homeless available in Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) shelters should be provided with three hygienically-prepared meals a day.

For this, an amount up to Rs 100/ -per homeless per day may be incurred from the Mission funds (Central as well as state share) available with the states / UTs. In the case of the adequacy of this amount at the local level, States/UTs may contribute additional funds from their resources", the Ministry added.

Moreover, further as apprised by the ministry, the fresh mobilized homeless/ vulnerable person if found ill should be referred to the hospital for a health check-up before their staying in the shelters for the urban homeless.