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Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board is an autonomous body under government of Delhi. The department rehabilitates slum dwellers and provides shelters for homeless in the geographical area of Delhi. The department has established 257 night shelters (as of 07 Jan 2015). These shelters provide protection to homeless people during severe winters of Delhi. The night shelters can accommodate over 19,000 homeless people.
The department provides bedding, blankets, drinking water, toilets, health check up & medicines, tea and rusk (in the morning) to those, who use the night shelters. There are separate night shelters for children, women, disabled, drug addicts etc. During winters, we run a control room to monitor and co-ordinate all night shelter related activities. To assist in managing activities associated with this social cause and disseminate information about homeless/night shelters to general public, our website hosts a live map of night shelters and a live occupancy report.
We also operate night patrols to locate homeless and take them to nearest night shelter, or if the person is sick, then to nearest government hospital by CAT ambulance. We have been regularly carrying out surveys to determine numbers and locations of homeless. The survey data is used for deciding location and capacity of new night shelters. Through an appeal by LG, we have requested general public that if some one locates homeless people, to either inform our control room or shift the person to nearest night shelter. Volunteers will be involved in some or all activities connected with night shelters which may include
- Managing/Operating night shelters,
- Co-ordination with various agencies like hospitals/Police/Delhi Jal Board/Municipal Corporations/District Collector Offices,
- Working with our teams in locating homeless people and shifting them to night shelters,
- Assisting in the night shelter control room,
- Visiting night shelters to check facilities,
- Homeless interviews and/or data collection,
- Other related back office work.
The activities may require working during nights, since most of the homeless people seek shelters for the night.
