Resettled urban poor face grave issues

An assessment study conducted by Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC) has revealed that residents in resettled families living in slum board tenements are being denied employment opportunities in the nearby areas.

“In the settlements, residents complained that women over 40 years are not provided job opportunities and they are not included in the vocational training or job fairs being conducted. In all these sites, because of lack of transportation connectivity, non-availability of jobs in the vicinity, lack of safety in the settlement, women depend on men for their transportation and their mobility is highly restricted,” the study report titled ‘Life on the margins’, released on Thursday, said.

The study was conducted in Kannagi Nagar, Semmenchery, Perumbakkam, Navalur Oragadam, HLL Nagar in Tondiarpet, All India Radio Land, Gudapakkam and Athipattu resettlement areas.

The report added that discussions with women reveal that the women were issued certificates after the vocational training, but there was no effort to convert these training into an income generation activity. They do not have the finances to start small businesses or marketing linkage for their products.

The report pointed out that at the resettlement sites of Perumbakkam, Semmenchery and AIR Land, people had several concerns about the quality of houses provided for them as the buildings were found to be damp throughout the year and the plasters were found to be crumbling.

Also, the children in the resettlement sites are continuing to face difficulties in accessing higher secondary school education. “There are glaring gaps in setting up schools in proportion to the population. There are glaring gaps in setting up schools in proportion to the population. While the resettlement site of Semmenchery with 5,164 tenements have three schools, Perumbakkam with a total population of over 20,376 families also has six functional schools and the All India Radio site with 5,856 tenements has only one school inside the s ettlement,” the report added.

The report recommended the government to set up grievance redress meetings, along with the relevant line departments, in the resettlement sites to address the pressing issues. Also, proximate resettlement should be practised as restoration of livelihood continues to be a challenge even in settlements that have been existing for over 5 years.