What are shelter homes?

It is the responsibility of the government to protect the homeless and neglected members of the society. The Juvenile Justice Act empowers state governments to recognise organisations and provide them assistance, to set up and run shelter homes for children, women and other people, who are in need of care and protection. These shelter homes also function as a drop-in-centres and night shelters for people who are in urgent need of support.

A shelter home is a place to take refuge or a temporary arrangement if you are in urgent need or emergency. These shelter homes also serve as government-aided hostels. People who are vulnerable or homeless or are in an emergency situation, they can approach their nearest shelter homes.

See also: All about Jharkhand Housing Board (JHB)

Role of shelter homes

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, Chapter III lists the duties of shelter home as:

“If an aggrieved person or on her behalf a protection officer or a service provider, requests the person in charge of a shelter home to provide shelter to her, such person in charge of the shelter home shall provide shelter to the aggrieved person in the shelter home.”

1. Shelter homes provide protection, services and resources, which enable a person who has experienced abuse to recover from the violence, to rebuild one’s self-esteem and to take steps to regain an independent and self-determined life.
2. Shelter homes increase awareness and understanding related to gender-based violence and violations of human rights.
3. Shelter homes assist women who leave situations of violence, to manoeuvre the police, judicial and social service systems, to access the critical support and protection provided by these institutions.
4. Shelter homes should educate health and judicial providers, as well as social service and security personnel, among other professionals, to recognise violence against women.

Finding shelter homes near you

Following the COVID-19 lockdown across the country in March 2020, Google India added a new feature to its search and maps, to list night shelters and food shelters in many Coronavirus-affected Indian cities. Developed in collaboration with the government, the Google search results show the list of government-run shelters and can be accessed on Google Maps and Google Assistant. Here’s how you can locate shelter homes near you on Google:

1. Turn on the ‘GPS Location’ on your device by going to Settings -> Location.
2. Open Google on the browser or your Google Assistant and search “shelter homes near me.” Alternatively, you can also use the voice search feature offered by Google by selecting the microphone icon beside the search bar.
3. The results will show you a list of shelter homes near you in order of proximity. By clicking on each result, you can get their details like address, phone number and operating hours. You can also read reviews and choose the one that is most convenient.
4. Once you have selected a shelter home, click on the ‘Directions’ button. Doing so will lead you to the Google Maps page displaying the directions for you to reach the selected shelter home from your current location.
5. Choose your mode of conveyance (car, two-wheeler, public transport or pedestrian) to find the easiest route to get there and start navigating to reach your destination.

City-wise list of shelter homes

Here is a curated list links where you can find the list of government-approved shelter homes in some of the major cities:

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