The next time you see a ragged old man dying on the street for want of shelter or a mentally retarded woman roaming around the street, there is something you can do for them. A call to the specified centre would ensure that they would be rescued and taken to a shelter home.
In a one-of-its-kind project, Street Light, envisaged by the social welfare department, is set to be launched within a week. Under the project, a rescue home has been identified in Kakkanad with a capacity of about 20 inmates in the initial phase. Persons lying abandoned on the street, old men and women with no shelter, mentally retarded persons and others rendered homeless will be rescued and brought to the home.
Here, the inmates will be offered care, including food, shelter and medicines as per their needs. In the case of them suffering from any disease, they will be taken to the hospital. If not, their relatives will be contacted for rehabilitation or transferred to a government home for the deprived. Each person can stay at the shelter for a maximum of about month.
“It is a one-of-its-kind project. The first in the state and possibly the first in the country as well. The project is under the special attention of the Chief Minister and the Minister for Social Welfare M K Muneer. The aim of the project is rescuing people on the street and providing them with rehabilitation as per their needs. The project is to be taken up in a phased manner. In the initial stage it will be limited to a few beds but based on the success and our experience, it will be modified and developed and can even be replicated in other districts,” said the District Social Welfare Officer, G Ramesh.
The preliminary work on the project has already begun. An abandoned building, with an area of about 1000 square feet, under the social welfare department will be used for the rescue home. The NGO Theruvoram which had submitted the proposal for the project will be the implementing agency for the project, said the Social Welfare Officer. The home is to have a nurse, cooks, separate cells for the mental retarded and rooms for women.
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