The Hindu : Rain leaves them high and dry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 13, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Rain leaves them high and dry

By Ramya Kannan

Chennai Oct.12. When Chennai experienced the pre-monsoon showers this year, there was jubilation. However, it had another side to it as well.

If the rain brings the much-needed water, it also brings in its wake flooding, traffic jams and further damage to the bad roads. In the midst of the downpour, literally with no roof over their heads, there will also be a number of people living on the fringes of the city, the pavements, who will be pushed into further misery.

The rainy season always haunts the pavement dweller. " All we can do is set up some temporary plastic sheets over our heads. That protects us merely from the drizzle. If there is a downpour, we are done for," says Karuthan, who has been living with his family on the pavements of G.N.Chetty Road.

Peering through the steady stream of drizzle, trying to keep his three-year-old nephew from running off into the rain, he is worried about what will happen during the coming weeks.

The pavement dwellers of K.K.Nagar might have had more than the regular share of media glare, but it has not improved their situation. For them, there are the discarded Veeranam pipes that provide shelter during the rains. With a plastic sheet covering the two ends of the pipes, entire families seek shelter inside the cast iron pipes, even cooking there.

Though some of the children living on the pavements go to schools regularly, during the rainy season they stop attending classes. "That is mainly because we have no dry clothes to wear. Also, most children living on the pavements fall ill during the wet spell," says Kanchana, a 7th standard Corporation School student living in the K.K.Nagar area, right outside the Rehabilitation Centre.

The problems are similar everywhere, be it Big Street in Triplicane, Barracks Road, North Wall Road, and the areas near Mint Bridge, in North Chennai, near Ayyappan Temple and Roundtana in Anna Nagar. Pavement dwellers are put to severe hardship, throughout the year, and it intensifies during the monsoon time. When temporary tarpaulin shelters do not hold and give way to rain, the occupants shift to under bridges, or to the meagre shelters in front of shops, during the night. Cooking is difficult and they have to depend on the small wayside eateries.

It is to address their issues on a collective forum that they formed the Platform Dwellers' Rights Association. Petitioning the government at regular intervals for a place to stay, their pleas have all fallen on deaf ears. "A solution to the problem has so far not been reached and the pavement dwellers continue to bear the brunt of the monsoons," says Paul Sunder Singh of Karunalaya, who has worked among the pavement dwellers of the North Chennai area.

The president of the association (Barracks Road division), M. Krishnan, says some of these persons have even been issued ration cards, though they have no proper address.

They form an important vote bank, passionately patronised during the elections, and ignored later by the government agencies.

"Several groups of women from Anna Road, Ambedkar Colony, Pumping Station and Kalvakarai even appeared before the National Commission for Women which held a hearing in the city recently, to narrate their problems," says Nesakkaram director, Jesu.

Another important problem that crops up during the rainy season is the loss of daily income.

While one group of pavement dwellers hawk wares from the platform themselves, others are rickshaw pullers or flower sellers, whose regular sources of income are definitely cut off during the rains.

Nearly seven years ago, the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, under a scheme called the Pavement Dwellers Rehabilitation Scheme, relocated some pavement dwellers in Kodungaiyur and Velachery.

The Board also has a provision to provide alternative housing for those pavement dwellers who have been evicted by government agencies carrying out development works, as long as the relevant agency pays up the cost, the Board officials say.

However, they add that they have had a bad experience with resettlement of pavement dwellers, as they tend to return to the pavements, which are closer to their sources of income.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

All set for Rajnikant programme

Rain leaves them high and dry

Chennai catchment areas continue to receive rain

House burgled

Illegal detentions pose a threat to human rights