20 hours ago
- General
- New Indian Express
81 per cent of destitute people in Chennai homeless for generations
CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), in collaboration with the Madras School of Social Work, recently released the final report of a city-wide homelessness survey titled 'Data for Dignity'.
While the survey identified around 13,529 homeless individuals across 2,837 locations in Chennai, the report recommends strengthening housing policies, enhancing social protection systems, addressing structural discrimination, and fostering community engagement.
The report, calling for coordinated inter-departmental action, was handed over to chief secretary N Muruganandam and officials from at least seven departments, including GCC, and TNUHDB, on May 29.
According to the report, of the total homeless population, around 51% that is 2,482 were part of family units. Moreover, a significant 80.66% of homeless population are generationally homeless noting they never had stable access to housing.
The report recommended government departments to invest in permanent housing within 2-3 km of their current locations, especially for families, who as per current practice often separated in gender-specific shelters.
With 58.26% of homeless families have children under 18 years, 25.89% have two children and 19.34% have one child, 5.1% (164) of them reported that their children had dropped out of school. While dropout rates are relatively low, continued monitoring and educational support remain critical, the report said. Common reasons cited for dropout was poverty, lack of interest, and inability to cope.
Only 10.78% of the children reached Class 11-12, and a mere 4.89% pursued college education.
