CHENNAI: Resettlement to one of Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board’s project sites in the city’s outskirts, usually entails considerable risks of unemployment. Forty-one-year-old Tamilarasi is one of the lucky few who turned the system to her favour.
Resettled to Semmenchery after she lost her house at Foreshore Estate to the tsunami, she joined the TNSCB’s livelihood programme. She has since worked with the board for a little over 13 years now, as a contract employee, under various projects.
“When I started, I helped the TNSCB coordinate with the community. I learn of their needs and help them reach it. I tell them how to transfer addresses, register to the ICDS,” Tamilarasi said.
After 2011, she was promoted as supervisor. She now handles a team of four. Along the way, she has also learnt to make sanitary napkins and to make spices.
“I also visit other districts to train women. It is good to know how to make sanitary napkins; it’s an important skill,” she said. Tamilarasi has been the sole breadwinner of the family, even before her husband’s death six years ago. “He would not give me any money to run the family. He would spend more than he would earn. The consistent monthly income has helped me in a lot of ways,” she said.
She has married off her daughter and her son is studying in a private arts college.
Official help
We continue to conduct programmes for project management teams and help them understand gender issues and develop communication skills, said a TNSCB official