PANAJI
Even as a number of cases have come to light as the pandemic plays out where beggars and generally street dwellers contracted and succumbed to Covid-19, documents show the Goa government failed to optimally avail and use central funding to help them.
The National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) scheme is meant to help the urban poor through access to gainful self-employment, skillful employment opportunities and shelters for the homeless.
But Goa’s implementing nodal agency - - Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) - - has totally neglected homeless destitute in urban areas and it is not the case that Goa’s cities do not have their share of people without a roof over their heads.
In the three years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, of a total grant of Rs 17.61-crore under the scheme, the State spent just Rs 10.85 crore on the scheme.
Of these Rs 10.85 crore utilized, a lion’s share - - Rs 8.17 crore - - was cornered for ‘training’ under the expenditure head “Capacity building and Training”.
But the component of the scheme which deals with providing shelter for the destitute and support to urban street vendors was totally neglected in all the three years.
GSUDA utilized only Rs 3.73 lakh for ‘shelter homes’ and another measly sum of Rs 6.87 lakh on providing support to urban street vendors.
The scheme NULM of the central Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs aims at reducing poverty and vulnerability of urban poor households through access to gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities. Another objective is to provide shelters equipped with essential services to the homeless in cities. The scheme also facilitates access to suitable spaces, institutional credit, social security and skilling for urban street vendors so they can compete for emerging market opportunities.
Interestingly, GSUDA does not have data on how many destitute people have been rehabilitated although some money has been spent for home shelters.
To a question filed by activist Avelino De Sa under the RTI Act as to the number of urban homeless picked up from the streets in the last one year (municipality wise), GSUDA’s Public Information Officer replied “not available”.
The NULM scheme is funded through the Central and State component of finances. For the 2017-20 three-year period, the Centre released around Rs 10.85 crores, while the other component of around Rs 7 crores was to come from the State’s coffers.
However, GSUDA has spent only Rs 10.81 crore to implement the scheme, possibly because the funds from the cash-starved State government’s coffers never came.
