It is evening and the Panahgah or shelter home at the Bhaati Gate area has a thick crowd of people waiting for the gates to open. On this cold and overcast evening, dusk has already begun to seep in and soon the shelter home will be open for all.

The building is newly made and the golden words on its façade spell out the name in Urdu.

The people — mostly men — are impatiently standing in a queue. Even here they jostle and push trying to speed up the process.

Mohammad Iqbal, a labourer, hailing from Multan, has come to find work in Lahore, and is now waiting to get in for his registration. “I cannot afford to pay for a hotel. The one I am in right now is full of bedbugs,” he says. “At least the food here is free, and it is clean.”

Afzal, a mason, from Gilgit-Baltistan is also here after a hard day’s work to utilise the shelter home for bed and breakfast. “I have been here for the past two days, and am thankful I have a clean and respectable place to stay.”

At this time, two or three huge cauldrons of steaming biryani are wobbling on the marble steps as some workers manage the food boxes. Since the food has been provided from a donor, the shelter home serves it as free food. As there are some in the queue who do not want shelter, but food, they are handed the boxes and they walk on through the exit gate.

Despite being set up in April 2019, the shelter home is underfunded and understaffed. Those working here are the social welfare department staff doing additional duties.

Rana Mohammad Ghalib, an official working here, says: “Temporary shelters were inaugurated in late 2018. These were simply tents that were set up every day giving people a place to sleep. A shuttle service was launched to help bring the people to these tents.” The deputy commissioner’s office marked the areas such as the government buildings which were mostly unused at night time and where ad hoc arrangements could be made. “We carried the tents and set them up at night, and in the mornings, we would dismantle them and take them off. This went on for three months,” recalls Ghalib.

Five such homes have been established in Lahore, with a total budget of Rs280million, according to the Lahore Development Authority.

Apart from Bhaati Gate, other locations include Lari Adda, Badami Bagh, Railway Station, and Thokar Niaz Baig. Although these shelter homes are not meant for homeless, those who come here to seek shelter are mostly from other towns and villages. Unable to afford a reasonable accommodation, such people end up sleeping on the pavements of hospitals or shrines.

They arrive here for different reasons — some to find work or see a relative in hospital, others to visit the various shrines or attend sufi festivals such as the Urs of Data Ganj Bakhsh and Shah Hussain Mela.

Misbah Zainab, who oversees the functioning of the Bhaati Gate Shelter Home, opens a well-thumbed register to show the long lists of visitors registered with the shelter home. The lists show their names, CNIC numbers, cell phone numbers, and thumb impressions. One of the columns mentions the reason why they are here, the most common being labourers.

Despite the fact that 18 beds are available for women in a separate wing, not one woman can be seen in the queue while the list also marks their absence.

“Very few women arrive alone to stay here,” says Misbah. “Usually their male relatives accompanying them give their names for registration.”

Overall the male wing has a capacity of 144.

In any case, no one can stay past three days at the shelter home, putting yet another question mark on its function.

“These are just temporary places of stay. We do not want for anyone to begin relying on us overly,” says Misbah. “But we make special exceptions for those who are needy.”

Misbah says that after an initial interview, those who seek registration, are also checked for infectious diseases, and any dangerous and potential weapons etc. Those who get approval are assigned beds. The rooms are like dormitories with several simple beds in one hall.

Sustainability

To run day-to-day affairs of the home, the administration is given Rs50,000 a month only but staff shortage is the main issue they are facing now.

“We need more staff, and definitely more budget allocation,” says Misbah. “There are small expenditures everyday that add up. Something or the other is manhandled and broken for example. Most people who come to stay here do not know how to operate washroom showers, and they tend to bang them on the wall in frustration. Our cups and plates also end up broken almost daily.”

Soaps, water purifiers for filters, floor sheets, towels and detergents are also needed regularly.

For Dr Qais Aslam, professor of economics, the shelter home may not be as sustainable as the government would want it to be. “Until there is no income generation, or unless the assembly has approved of this project, it can’t survive for long. Because there is no legal cover, the project may end up collapsing,” he says.

The project never did reach the assembly floor as it takes a chunk of the SWD budget.

“You can’t take money from taxpayers and use it as per your whim,” says Dr Aslam. “There should be some feasibility study. According to the government’s own reports millions are homeless – surely these homes are not catering to all those millions.”

Dr Aslam says every government is somewhat responsible for ensuring that people do not die in the cold, or sleep on pavements, but the economics of running a project must be ascertained.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2020