Slum Upgrading to Resettlement Colonies: Building Inclusive, Safe and Resilient Communities

The term “slum” connotes the informal and illegal tenements marked by inhuman and abysmal conditions of inadequate housing, overcrowding, and lack of access to the bare civic necessities of sanitation and hygiene. Governments across the world try to address the problem of slum dwellers but they are hardly successful in their outcomes. Finding a lasting and sustainable solution to the problems caused by the rapid proliferation of slums has always been elusive.

Resettlement colonies are one of the solutions adopted by Local Governments in India to address the issue of slums where in large number of houses are built on the fringes of the city where cheap land is available. Moving to these resettlement colonies entails slum dwellers not only moving farther away from, but also deprivation of access to their workplaces, schools, social institutions, and networks of support for their daily living. This paper examines the case of slum dwellers forcibly evicted and housed from Appasamy Street Slum, adjoining Chetpet, a posh locality in the heart of Chennai, to a resettlement colony at Perumbakkam situated in the periphery of the city as part of Slum upgrading.

This paper tries to capture the lived experiences of slum dwellers on moving to the resettlement colony through Focus Group Discussions and In-depth Interviews. The paper brings out that though the slum upgradation program has resulted in relatively better housing compared to their earlier slum settlement, it has largely failed in addressing the livelihood needs and other basic civic amenities making them more vulnerable to poverty than before.

Also Read: Governance Efficacy in Sustainable Slum Regeneration