By Daiaphira Kharsati
SHILLONG: There is always at least two sides of a story. While the majority of citizens in the country are beating drums and lighting candles to drive away coronavirus, the destitute in the city do not have much to complain.
The state government has been running three shelter homes since March 30 keeping in mind the vulnerability of the homeless families in the city at a time when the country is fighting against the coronavirus pandemic.
The three homes at Kench’s Trace and on the premises of the Municipal Board and erstwhile Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) buildings in the city are providing shelter and food to around 70 homeless people, including children.
There are water tanks with bottles of hand wash for the inmates. Cleanliness of the shelter homes is also taken care of.
Life for them inside the shelter homes is a break from the gruelling task of looking for food or petty jobs to feed children and a place to hide from the cold or rain, agreed almost all the 22 inmates at Kench’s Trace.
Life on the streets
Each person at the home at Kench’s Trace has a story to tell and no one looked in a hurry to narrate one, fearing that the monotony of their survival battle and destitution might lessen the enthusiasm of the listener.
For instance, Pappu Swer is among the unfortunates who dream of a better life lying on the cobbled footpath every night.
The daily wage earner lost his home with the demise of his mother.
Swer and four others were brought to the shelter home by police personnel. “I will work hard to ensure that I get a house. I do not want to live in the streets anymore and to have people look down upon me,” said Swer.
Rafeeq Ali, who is originally from Assam, does not stay with his mother at Harijan Colony and when asked about the reason the young daily wage earner chose to remain silent. Before coming to the shelter home, the streets of Police Bazar were his address.
For a woman, living on the streets can be fraught with danger and yet Julie Dhar had no other option but to leave her home at Happy Valley after her parents forced her to live on her own.
“It is a very tough life; there is no peace or comfort. I work in people’s houses and get Rs 150-200 per day and then later after work, I sleep on the footpath. It is horrid as we would be pestered by police,” she said, adding that she does not want to go back home.
Sujata Bose too is brave. She was forced to live on the road after her husband died six years ago. A Nepali by birth, Bose married a Bengali in Mawbah but her in-laws never accepted her.
“My three children are with my in-laws. I cannot meet them and I can only see them from afar. The eldest son recognises me as his mother whereas the two young ones do not know that I am their mother,” she said.
A resident of Balat, Barshali Hajong said she would look out for cartons and got Rs 50 and Rs 200 on sunny days. “How can I go back when I have a step-mother who ill-treats me? If my mother was still alive, I would not be here,” she said.
The shelter home came as a blessing to Sapna Thapa and her husband Mahender, a labourer, also from Mawbah. Paying rent in the city is tough for a family that struggles to have a square meal a day.
So one day, they were ousted from the house in Nongmynsong. Wandering where to go, the couple met some government employees and was brought to the home. Their only son lives in a child welfare home in the city.
The youngest inmate is 14 years old. Ansh Deb hails from Nongpoh. He lives with his grandmother who is currently in another shelter home. Deb could not study beyond nursery due to poverty and worked in a charcoal shop at a payment of Rs 80 a day.
Uncertainty & hope
The shelter homes in the compound of the municipal office and the old MBDA building have 26 and 17 inmates, respectively.
An inmate in the municipality shelter home, Sanbor Lyngdoh from War Sohra, stays wherever he gets a place to rest but not on the streets. He also does not go back to his home as his parents are no more.
In the old MBDA home, a former soldier recollected his days on the field. Rudra Chandra Rai was a parachute ranger in Agra and was part of the Kargil operation. Rai said he has a fractured leg and is unable to walk. “I was brought here when I was resting at a bus stop,” he said.
Sanjeev Adhikari, a daily wage earner is originally from Nepal. He has studied till Class IX at Jail Road Boys HS School but dropped out due to poverty. “I want to study but poverty barred me. My mother is poor and I do not want to be a burden on her”, he said, adding that he has lost his passbook and other important documents.
Heros Khongwir, 63, is from 3rd Mile and started living on the streets of Shillong only three months ago following the death of his youngest sister. He was a tailor but due to a tiff with the owner, he left the job.
“I am facing problems ever since the death of my youngest sister. My children are there in Mawsynram and I often see them,” he said.
But Khongwir has not given up on life even at this age and is determined to start afresh after the corona crisis is over.
The camp manager said that Khongwir is the most active amongst the inmates and gives much attention to the cleanliness of the place.
Madan Chettri is originally from Assam and works as a cook in a small hotel on Thana Road. “I will find ways and means to work again after the crisis is over,” said the man in his fifties.
The shelter home has given some the necessary time to rethink their lives and prepare a contingency plan after the corona episode is over. But for many of them like Dipu Gogoi and Sanjay Chettri, no work today means no savings tomorrow and no roof over their heads, again.