‘Record number of deaths of homeless in Capital due to heat, lack of amenities’

Non-profit reports record number of homeless deaths due to heatwave, lack of care, and pre-existing conditions in Delhi.

Data from the Zonal Integrated Police Network and the Ministry of Home Affairs show that a record number of homeless people died in the Capital between June 11 and June 19, according to a report by the Centre for Holistic Development (CHD), a non-profit organisation (NGO) that works to provide support to the homeless. The report was released on June 19, a day before Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj confirmed the deaths of 14 persons due to heatstroke, of whom many had pre-existing diseases.

The NGO, which is a member of the National Forum For Homeless Housing Rights — a coalition of 50 organisations, lawyers, and activists working across the country on issues affecting homeless people — said it has never recorded as many deaths among the destitute during the nine-day period since it started collating data 22 years ago.

Sunil Kumar Aledia, executive director of CHD, said, “Many homeless people do not get the required care and hence do not get admitted to hospitals. That is a major reason why the deaths among homeless people are much higher than the number of deaths reported from hospitals.” He attributed the spike in deaths to the most severe spell of heatwave the national capital has witnessed in the last several decades.

Speaking about the rising number of deaths, Dr. Suresh Kumar, medical director, Lok Nayak Hospital, said, “This year, we suddenly received many heatstroke cases. Some of the patients were severely affected while some were even brought dead. Many of them were homeless persons.”

Talking about the treatment of heatstroke patients, Dr. Kumar said the hospital has beds reserved for such cases.

Moreover, doctors and nursing staff are trained to identify heatstroke patients and bring down their body temperature. In some cases, patients may also suffer from low blood pressure and seizures, he also said.

Doctors at RML Hospital have also been seeing a rise in the number of heat-related cases. As of Wednesday, 50 patients had been admitted to the hospital’s heatstroke unit, which was established in May.