What's curious though, is how homelessness in general has stopped bothering our conscience. Many tend to approach the issue with a matter of fact attitude.
Rupa KC from Hetauda was raised with the same sentiments as well. Her city streets always had homeless people and the trend was to ignore them to the best of one's ability. There was a "crazy" lady in particular that KC was instructed to avoid at all costs. The lady was apparently notorious for begging and then hitting people who didn't give her anything. However, this was more than a decade ago. Today the same "crazy" lady helps her and other volunteers out in the kitchen at their ashram for homeless people. As it turned out, what the "crazy" lady needed was just some care and sympathy.
KC works as a coordinator for the Manav Sewa Ashram, a youth led committee that is tackling homelessness in various cities like Hetauda, Chitwan, and most recently, in Kathmandu. She along with Ramji Adhikari, the organizer of Manav Sewa Ashram mull over public's continuous apathy towards those who have been shunned to the streets.
"Obviously nobody lives on the streets by choice. So at a time when there are voices being raised for animal rights, we have to wonder why homeless people are still largely ignored. There are many who actively advocate a quality life for animals but those unfortunate ones who live on the streets seem to slip many priority lists. Surely, they deserve to live with dignity too," says Adhikari.
It's a philosophy with which they have been striving for three years now. They give shelter, clothes, food and medication to those in need. They especially make it a point to help out those on the streets who show signs of mental health problems. Often what looks like "crazy", as KC personally found out, isn't always the case.
"I had seen her on the streets, chasing people since I was a kid," reminisces KC. "So when we set about helping the homeless, my mind immediately went to her, "the crazy lady". It took us several attempts to gain her trust. She even hurled stones at us a couple of times but eventually she began recognizing us. We bought her to our ashram and started caring for her. Slowly there were improvements in her behavior. She even told us her name, Sushila Pudasaini, and then her story."
Thus it begins with simple acknowledgement believe KC and Adhikari. They ask the general public to wonder what got those people out on the streets in the first place because the reasons aren't always financial. For instance, in Sushila's case, it was a her turbulent relationship with her husband and like Sushila, what volunteers at Manav Sewa Ashram have discovered is that more than food or money, those living on the streets crave human contact. They have seen this time and again. Several rescued homeless people apparently speak of the loneliness out on the streets and what really heal them is care, support and social interactions.
Juju Kaji, of Heart Beat, a day care center for street children, too has experienced this first hand. In over the decades that he has been helping homeless people from organizing morning tea and bread programs, distributing clothes and blankets to running a contact center where street kids can come and find shelter from the streets, he has noticed how simple care and genuine conversations can lead to developments. He points at the drawings on the walls of his center.
"These are all done by street kids. I am sure many people have seen them begging on the streets and most times many must have considered them as nuisances but at the end of the day, they are kids who don't get the opportunities they deserve. One of the main reasons homelessness prevails in our society is because people and even the government don't see them as human beings who deserve our time of the day. But give them a space where they can stay away from the streets and this happens," says Juju Kaji gesturing to an artwork.
In the name of equality, he doesn't believe in turning away the homeless adults who come by asking for food or warm clothes even though his organization often buys those items for the children. He reasons that this only helps emphasize his point. It advertently comes down to the fact that organizations specifically established to help the homeless are rare in our country. There may be institutes who support children or the elderly but those categories don't cover many out on the streets.
Then there is also the lack of significant government commitment and resources deployed in the issue. After all, ideally homelessness is an issue that should be entirely addressed by the state. But chief of sectors like the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office that should actually play a big role blatantly claims that currently there are no such programs to tackle homelessness.
"This is just one among several other issues in our capital. I agree this is a problem but there are many other priorities that we are also dealing with at the moment. To fight homelessness, we need to start from scratch and figure out the various departments that need to be involved and coordinate among one another. Further, the earthquake has displaced many people, so we must also distinguish the reasons many people are on the street," says Rudra Singh Tamang, chief and executive officer at KMC. He then ends with the customary, "We plan to hold meetings and come up with some plans in the future."
Adhikari, organizer of Manav Sewa Ashram has had firsthand experience with the government's frustratingly slow pace and cites that as the reason they have decided to solely rely on themselves and in fact turn towards the public for support.
"The Hetauda Metropolitan City Office for instance has been helping us by taking responsibility of our rent which is Rs 24,000. Members from the Chitwan police as well as some government offices have also been helping us by locating homeless people in need. So if they earnestly want to, the government can find ways to help us eradicate homelessness from various cities. However, we don't plan to pin our hopes on them," says Adhikari.
Rather they believe the step forward is to nudge the conscience of the public and help them realize their responsibilities as human beings to help the homeless. They have been carrying out various campaigns to create awareness as well as empathy, spread concepts such as celebrating birthdays and other occasions at their ashram or simply urging each household in the community to donate a fistful of rice. Juju Kaji too has been running his organization through aids from various friends, families and likeminded charities in the community. He has been coordinating with the Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB) but that is the extent of government assistance he has had as well.
"It's not only a question of taking people off the streets but not letting them go there to begin it. It is a tricky scenario because there are those who are caught in vicious cycles that need to be systematically worked upon. Then there are some who prefer living on the streets because they have turned begging into a small business. Still the biggest challenge is to make the majority believe that this is an important issue. We need to start sparing a thought about homeless people's right to live with dignity," concludes Juju Kaji.
priyankagurungg@gmail.com
Related story
Garner graces cover of People’s annual ‘Beautiful Issue’
