The night in a shelter home

To the nation and society, it is very awkward to believe that there is a huge mass of men and women who have been deliberately debarred from equal citizenship rights. There is a whole nation on this earth whose people don’t enjoy equal opportunity for their dignified life. Some of the people I’m talking about reside very near to our homes, offices, temples and educational institutions - in this ancient city of Patna. They are symbolically called homeless people. They will be found near railway stations, footpaths, under the bridge, in open grounds anywhere in the city where they are not disturbed. And here disturbance doesn’t mean notching their dignity. They can live with in numerous abuses, thrashings, and a lot of urines, spits and huge amount of rubbish.

A campaign called Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan is being carried out in this serene city of Patna. Eventually, I came to know about this noble work through Ms.Dorothy. I went to see the working condition of the shelter home e that of people residing in these homes.

Nearest shelter home to me was Golghar shelter home. It was made in the campus of Golghar. It covered roughly 1000square feet and provides shelter to 80to100 people in a single night. It was made up of bamboos and tarpaulin. Though tarpaulin can’t resist lashing and piercing cold wind but beds made up of hays (pual) were quite helpful. When mercury dips down to very low point, population in the shelter home also increases. Mainly rickshaw walas, labours and blood donors come there to sleep. All of them come here in Patna to find their live hoods. The story behind each of them is painful thought provoking. They are native of Vaishali, Samastipur, Sitamrihi, Saharsa and some of them are from Bengal also. Some of them have lost their homes and some of them frequently visit their homes. The pressures of population on farm track, lack of employment, loss of crops have forced them to migrate to this big city of Patna. Here they sell their labour to earn better and comfortable living but they end to live on footpaths and dividers of road. Blood donors are interesting creatures - they sell their blood twice or thrice a week for Rs.500 to 700.They have came too far on this path and now they can’t do anything judicious to their health. They are part of the whole nexus of blood donation mafia.

In the shelter of Mahmudichak, Rajendranagar.I found many labourers and rickshaw walas. The shelter home was made was made in a government school. The arrangements were marvellous and remarkable thing was that those were made of virtual zero-resources provided originally. The same thing I found in Bihari Sao lane. The walls and floors were tattered. There were many vents in ceilings. It was good luck for me that night no rain cloud came there In Mahmudichak I met a person called Radha Ray he sells his labour to earn livelihood for himself and his family. He told me it is very difficult to live on your farmland. Sometimes it rains heavily and sometimes draught appears to swallow fruit of their hard labour. Cultivation is very difficult in villages due to these conditions. He mathematically proved me how it happens that everybody is leaving for urban areas. He told me that if a farmer has one beegha (a common unit of tract; smaller unit is kattha) and he grows wheat on it he will get 40Kg approx of wheat per kattha of land. Since one beegha is equal to 20 kattha he will get 800 Kgs of wheat from his land. Selling the produce at the rate of 6Rs/Kg he will get four thousand eight hundred rupees. He will expend Rs150 per kattha (approx) thus Rs3000 will be his expenditure. Hence his profit will be a meagre sum of Rs1800. Even if it’s exaggerated, take it to Rs.3000. It means a farmer has to survive with his family with Rs.300 till the next crop is cut and sold. And thus, they are compelled to find any other job in cities like Patna. So the root problem is in the village. Ramadhan mahto who is from Hajipur told me that if government provides us a shelter home even in live of 100to200Rs we are ready for it. It’ll be great help for us.

In Bihari Sao lane I had my dinner with rikshawwalas they had cooked delicious khichdi (a food made with rice and pulses). They told the same story. The same problem – everywhere. The roof was in a dilapidated condition thanks to rain god that it didn’t rain. They showed me their situations but they hoped that one day it will be better. In all three shelter homes, I founds ray of hopes. They hope for their future for their loved ones.

Next morning I woke up early. The sun hasn’t risen yet. It was 5:45 am in the morning of chilly winter season. A call for prayer was coming from nearby mosque. A municipality tap of water was running without any routine. A street dog was drinking water from the flowing sewage. There were one or two human beings just started packing their bags. The common people of the city had just started to be grinded in the cruel life. I finally came back to my sweet home.



MILIND