Relocation, Relocation, Desparation
By Sophie Wallace, Hu Yanjun, Kane Hocking
In 2015 Chennai experienced catastrophic floods which killed over 300 people and displaced thousands. Following the disaster, the Chief Minister for Tamil Nadu ordered the resettlement of people living on the banks of the Cooum, Aydar and Buckingham waterways. The families were moved to the outskirts of Chennai to regions such as Perumbakkam and Semancherry.
This resettlement is part of an ongoing programme started by the Chennai government in 2008 to clear the city’s slums.
However according to local media reports, in the past few years, the Tamil Nadu government have, in the name of “post-flood rehabilitation” started ruthlessly evicting people from the river banks to clear them.
According to locals, many of the families are still living on the banks in makeshift tents and the ones who do get homes are faced with poor living conditions.
In terms of employment, many fishing families, especially who came from the Nochikuppam slums along the Marina Loop road faced a severe problem of finding a new job, because over past few years, these fishing families’ only source of livelihood was fishing and they only know fishing. Also, it became difficult for many people to be competent for a new job after leaving their old jobs which they have been doing their whole lives. Therefore, in such situation, how can they do other jobs that the government wants them to do?
Besides, although TNSCB had provided “skill development” training for men and women in the housing boards, many young people were still not finding any suitable jobs as TNSCB promised before.
Leaving the old lives, many families who have been shifted to Perumbakkam and Kannagi Nagar would face not only the difficulty of the employment, but also the academic problems of their children.
Venkatesan, who runs a small stationery shop in the Perumabakkam housing board add that unlike the schools before they moving, these new schools are far away from their home and many children cannot completely adapt to a new learning environment in a short time.
At first, the government had promised a better life in terms of water supply, electricity, and employment for the people, but Tamizh, who is a member of the association formed by the tenants of the Perumbakkam resettlement colony, said that the officials would never like to listen to the complaints even if the shortage of drinking water has become one of the most important problems that the residents of the Perumbakam resettlement area should face. Because of the lack of water quality management, most of tanks of motor remained uncovered for a long period of time, which lead to the contamination of water and many people especially children got sick after using the water.
So the reality for many is this: they were removed from their homes by flooding, only to find themselves once again flooded out of their homes during the rainy season. Not only does this cause problems for the residents, but many houses suffer from roof leaks and in the past water has become contaminated due to the poor conditions. This relocation has caused more problems for already suffering families.
Chennai is the 6th largest city in India and is located in the southern-Indian state of Tamil Nadu. To find out more about the city, watch the video below for a snapshot of life there.
