At least 9 homeless deaths are reported across Delhi every day. Most die of drug addiction.
They die, unidentified across Delhi every year, and the numbers mount.
In 2005, the number of unidentified bodies in Delhi was 2,202. In 2015, this figure rose to 3,285.
In areas surrounding Kashmeri Gate, Old Delhi and Yamuna Bazar — areas with most homeless — the Delhi Police find at least five unidentified bodies every day. In Kashmeri Gate alone, this year the police have found 330 bodies.
Not many constables want a beat posting in these areas because their jobs include picking up bodies eaten by rats and strays.
“Most times the bodies are beyond recognition,” a constable told HT. “Their eyes are sunk in and they have no cheeks. It is a depressing sight.”
Almost 80-90% of the bodies are of homeless drug addicts, police say. Over the last one year, the state government’s Delhi Aids Control Society (DACS) found 9,801 homeless injection drug users willing to take the HIV test. 540 men tested HIV positive.
A coordinator at an NGO that manages shelters in Delhi said the homeless addicts get HIV by sharing syringes.
“Thrice a month, doctors come and give medicines as part of the de-addiction programme,” he said. “How can it be a success when they have no facility to admit the homeless there?”
The Delhi government has six de-addiction centres but only the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Science (IBHAS) admit patients. But the homeless cannot be admitted here because patients must have an attendant.
Another similar facility is in Ghaziabad. The others are only referral centres at city hospitals.
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