Resettlement of Urban Poor in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

In Chennai alone, over 21,000 families have already been removed from their primary livelihood area and ghettoised in the peripheral areas of the city like Kannagi Nagar, Semmencherry and Perumbakkam, which are 25 to 30 kilometres from their original habitation. Another 31,912 families are in the process of being removed to these resettlement colonies. The R&R processes adopted by the government for the urban communities have unleashed gross human rights violations including right to adequate housing, food, water, education, health, work/livelihood and security of the person and home. There are no prescribed standards or policy in place for urban resettlement, yet government is constructing more houses in these sites. This article intends to document the human rights violation faced by the resettled communities in Kannagi Nagar, Chennai, and calls for an urgent attention to bring in necessary changes in the R&R policy for urban resettlement.