Census workers at a nightshelter near Bhubaneswar railway station on Monday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, March 1: Census work ended in city limits last night with six teams of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) counting the homeless people in 24 identified pockets of the capital.

The enumerating teams, which had 11 members each, visited the railway station, city bus stand, Malisahi night shelter, old bus stand, Market Building, Unit I Market, Adivasi Ground and flyovers near Mausima Square and Palaspalli.

The other areas where they went looking for the shelterless were Lingaraj Temple, Baramunda bus stand, Baramunda Kali temple, Khandagiri, Udaygiri, Priyadarshini Market, Indradhanu Market, and the Exhibition Ground.

A few teams also covered Ram Mandir, Vanivihar and Kochilakhai market near Rasulgarh.

“The process was carried out across the country last night from about 9.30pm to midnight. It was conducted at a particular time, as the homeless people by their very nature are nomadic. The counting was done both in urban and rural areas last night,’’ said municipal commissioner, Vishal Kumar Dev.

“The Supreme Court had directed that all cities covered under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and having a population of more than five lakh should have a 24-hour and 100-person shelter for every one lakh people population.

“Basic amenities, de-addiction and recreation facilities should also be available in these shelters. There should be a 30 per cent reservation for women and older persons in these facilities. Keeping this in mind, counting of homeless people was very important,’’ he said.

He also added: “The city is already operating three night shelters and is in the process of adding more.

“The BMC has also roped in several city-based social service organisations to collect data on the homeless population. Some members of these organisations also accompanied enumerators during the census across the city,’’ said a senior BMC official.

Sources in BMC said the civic body had conducted a baseline survey in collaboration with the Centre for Development Research and Training (Cenderet) of the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, to know the number of homeless people.

“The Cenderet had taken into account people staying at possible localities across the city in the early morning and midnight hours to find the number of people who need night shelter facility,’’ added another official.