Don’t neglect homeless for Commonwealth Games, says UN

NEW DELHI - Delhi must not neglect its homeless during this chilling winter, the United Nations said Thursday, adding that preparations for the Commonwealth Games should not be the reason to force the poor to live under the open sky.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Raquel Rolnik Thursday expressed her concern about the homeless people who have died from cold recently in New Delhi and the risk to the lives of many others given the harsh weather and insufficient shelters.

In an official communique, Rolnik also drew attention to the growing number of homeless in the Indian capital and the demolition of night shelters as part of the city’s beautification for the Games. She noted that preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games seem to be one of the factors behind the closing down of a number of shelters”.

In the last month, demolitions of shelters and eviction of homeless from places they used as shelters have been conducted by public authorities despite the cold weather, the UN said in its statement. The lives of hundreds of homeless people in India are at risk as temperatures near zero degrees, warned Rolnik.

While the homeless population has been growing since 2007, the number of homeless shelters in New Delhi has recently been reduced from 46 to 24, in disregard of the Delhi Master Plan 2001 and the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, the statement quoting her said.

However, the special rapporteur welcomed the interim order adopted by the Delhi High Court and urges the authorities to comply to halt the demolition of homeless shelters. She called for “providing immediate assistance and adequate shelter to the affected persons and not to evict homeless persons in the winter, on humanitarian grounds.

The comment has come a day after the Supreme Court asked the Delhi government not to allow even a single person to sleep under the sky. The state administration is now scrambling to comply with the court directives.