Rehabilitation project for street dwellers

Nadira Gunatilleke

COLOMBO: The National Institute of Social Development (NISD) under the Social Services and Social Welfare Ministry has conducted a survey on street dwellers in Colombo Fort and the Pettah.

The survey revealed there are nearly 1,500 persons who use the street as a place of shelter and as their 'home', Social Services and Social Welfare Ministry Secretary Vijayalakshmi Jegarasasingam told the Daily News yesterday.

She said more street dwellers come into streets in the night. During the survey 931 street dwellers (60 per cent) had been discovered in this area in the night. Another 556 street dwellers (36.5 per cent) were found in the day time from the same area.

There were 1,093 males and 430 females among them. The number of street children found was 17. Nearly 17 per cent of the street dwellers are physically disabled and about three percent are mentally unsound.

During an interview conducted with a mixed group of 329 street dwellers, it was disclosed that three per cent of them are quite happy to be in the streets and do not want to move into permanent shelter.

The other six percent wanted to live a normal life if given necessary assistance. Of this mixed group, 148 were from Colombo and suburbs while 21 per cent were from villages beyond 51 kilometres. Nearly 48 per cent of the group lived in the streets because of employment, she added.

It was also revealed that 179 persons out of the 329 were beggars and another 100 were doing other types of menial work for a living. The income ranged from around Rs.200 per day to over Rs.500 but the median was Rs.300 to Rs.400. About 60 per cent of them had stated that safety on the street was not a concern, Jegarasasingam said.

There were 29 children in the group (17 males and 12 females) and 17 children out of this number had never attended school while five of them were attending school. Most of the children were living with their parents in the street.

According to Jegarasasingam, the Social Services and Social Welfare Ministry has already launched a special programme to rehabilitate these street dwellers.

The 'Rehabilitation programme for Street Dwellers' is now in progress covering 22 families.

The project has achieved significant success and only one family has returned to street life in the Pettah.