Homeless pay shop owners to stay dry!

CHENNAI: For most people in the city, the comforting part of the day after having battled rain and floods, is that they have a warm roof over their heads to come home to. "We have a much bigger roof," says eight-year-old Anandan cheekily, pointing up at the ceiling of the Kodambakkam Railway station. Like hundreds of other families without a physical 'home', his family of five, comprising his two sisters and parents have sought refuge from the Chennai monsoon by moving to the nearest railway station. Rajkiran, his father, who works as a knife sharpener by day, says that this is the only way to stay safe at night, without getting drenched, "As long as we come after 11 pm and stay under the bridge or on the edges of the platform, the guards don't mind," he says candidly."We found that there were over 40,000 homeless people in Chennai after a detailed study in 2003," says Vanessa Peter, who works with Urban Poverty Issues in ActionAid, "And this number has only gotten bigger now." The most curious part of Chennai's homeless is that close to 85 percent of them are families; something that is unique to the city. So, naturally most of them shy away from using the allotted shelters for women and children, because they admittedly, would like to be in one place. "Most often they seek out community halls or schools that allow them to use their foyers," she adds. Unfortunately, as last week's rains lasted for almost three days non-stop, most hall-owners and schools were reluctant to give them space, alleges Muthulakshmi, a homeless construction worker with four children. This is where stations are a great boon for them. A quick look at the lesser used stations along the Chennai-Central to Tiruvallur line, such as Basin Bridge, Vyasarpadi and even high volume ones like Perambur  show that they are effective shelters for our city's shelter-less, "After seeing how we lived - in boxes and torn tarpaulins, one stationmaster who came to scold us, actually told us to stay. However, he told us to leave before the morning trains came," reveals Mukundesh, a hawker, who usually lived near the K5 Police Station there.A larger number of homeless people, though, who have not discovered stations, still depend on shopkeepers. "Normally, some kind shopkeepers who have shades outside, allow us to sleep on the steps, and stay dry at night. However these days, most of them have started asking for money to allow us to stay," says Ramudu, from Periamet. Where they would normally pay `20 to stay dry, the rates have gone up to `50 per night - the only advantage being that they are now being allowed to take shelter even by day, as long as they stay on the sides.