CHENNAI: For around 150 members of the Irular community in Kanima Nagar, Periya Nemmeli, along East Coast Road in Chengalpattu district, a heavy downpour means eating half as much as usual.
With no usable toilets in their homes and rainwater flooding the ground around them, finding a place to urinate or defecate becomes so difficult, residents said, that they cut their food intake by half to avoid having to relieve themselves.
The houses, built for 36 families by an NGO around 2005, have deteriorated over the years. In several cases, there is no door, leaving residents exposed in both privacy and safety. The residents told TNIE the toilets were never functional as there was no water supply, and the supply that exists falls short of what the families need.
At least two electricity poles in the settlement are in a dilapidated condition. Two houses share a common structure, so if one collapses, the other could come down with it. “Our houses shudder during thunderstorms; rainwater seeps in, and we get electric shocks from the switchboards. We fear the walls may collapse at any time,” said V Rekha, a resident.
Fearing a roof collapse, all of the families have put up makeshift structures next to their houses, where they sleep. During heavy rain, floodwater enters the homes and rises to below knee level, they said.
Families usually move to a nearby relief centre during floods, said V Anandhi, another resident, but on the past two occasions they refused to leave in the hope that it could draw attention to their plight.
Most residents are daily-wage workers, engaged in construction, tree-cutting, snake catching, and collecting plastic waste to sell. Access to the settlement is no easier, with only a muddy pathway leading to it. S Mohana, a resident, said,
“Ambulances do not come to our settlement because the road is not proper. During summer, autos come, but when it rains, they stop coming too. We have to carry sick people ourselves to the main road, which is 500 metres away.” The residents told TNIE they had submitted multiple petitions for housing to the tahsildar, the revenue divisional officer and the collector, but to no avail.
Dr Dalia Ghosh Dastidar, an independent consultant on Project Kanimar, which works to empower Irulars, said the government should have provided all necessary amenities. “Why did the government give a community patta if building houses required individual pattas?” she asked.
Nemmeli panchayat officials said the NGO had nominated three persons from the community and helped them get community pattas in their names. They said only three houses could be built under it, and that individual pattas were required to build separate houses for all. On electric poles, officials said, the electricity department had been alerted. The residents also fear losing their access road, with a prominent realtor constructing an apartment complex near the settlement.
When asked, Chengalpattu Collector Dr M Veerappan said the matter would be examined and an appropriate solution provided soon.