CHENNAI: “I have remained unemployed for six months and interest on debts are piling up,” said Sathyakumar, a resident of Perumbakkam resettlement colony. He is one among from Sathyavani Muthu Nagar who were relocated six months ago. Since then, the relocated families have been unable to find a living due to lockdown and also lack of any employment opportunities in the outskirts.
“As an auto driver, I earn about Rs 600 a day, but in the last six months I could not. In Perumbakkam, there is no scope to ride auto and with the gas prices, it is unimaginable for us to ride all the way to Chennai to take passengers,” said Sathyakumar.
For the resettled residents, the Slum Clearance Board is supposed to hold employment fairs and skill training sessions. But the residents said none of it was held so far. Nirosha, who previously owned a provision store in SM Nagar, is now unemployed. “We have had no job fairs here and due to pandemic, we cannot set up shop too. We are only living in debt and there is no scope for work opportunities,” said Nirosha.
Thiagaran, an auto driver, who came from SM Nagar, said that per day, his auto rent is Rs 250 and now, with petrol hike and pandemic, he earns about Rs 300 a day. “About, 90 per cent of the money goes for rent. In SM Nagar, we used to earn more as Central and Egmore stations were nearby,” he said.
Residents also said they are not welcome anywhere in nearby localities, even as domestic help, as most people look down upon them. “The image is that all crime and thefts happen in our colony. So, nobody wants to employ us,” said Mercy, a social worker from Perumbakkam. A pandemic livelihood study recently by Delhi-based Housing for Land Rights Network (HLRN) and Chennai-based Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC) found that 48 per cent of people relocated between 2017 and 2020 were unemployed.
Vanessa Peter of IRCDUC said that the evictions must be in accordance with UN guidelines. “Proximate resettlement is the only solution for protecting the livelihood and welfare of resettled people. It is impossible to create new employment for such a huge number of families,” she said.
Meanwhile, TNSCB officials said they would conduct job fairs and skill training once the pandemic is over. However, while the job loss and social issue woes continue, more buildings are being built in the resettlement colony as the TNSCB expects to evict more people in the coming months.