CHENNAI: Muniyamma, a 63-year-old resident of the Perumbakkam resettlement site, ran out of kerosene some four days ago. With no income to purchase fuel, she has gathered some logs and is contemplating to set up a wood fire to prepare a meal.Her story is similar to that of thousands of unorganised workers, especially senior citizens and people with disabilities, evicted from slums and resettled away from the city. The fear of hunger looms large as they battle each day with no work and depleting finances.
“The government has not given us gas connection yet. I have been dependent on my neighbours for a few days now,” Muniyamma told Express. She had worked as a domestic help in Chindadiripet before being evicted and resettled in Perumbakkam in January this year. The petty shop she put-up in the resettlement site, had to be shut after the lockdown. Now, she walks 1.5 km to buy even vegetables.
Struggles to cook
While affluent city-dwellers who cannot cook, use food delivery apps to order in food, the people at the resettlement enjoy no such luxury. “There are very few ration shops and even fewer vegetable shops,” said A Kousalya* a resident of Chemmencheri, adding that people in the locality would volunteer to cook if the government sets up a community kitchen. Several densely populated pockets, recently developed real estate hotspots with migrant labourers, in the city face similar issues.
The need for prepared food
Perumbakkam area that houses nearly 20,000 families, has only one Amma Unavagam, said K Sujatha, a disabled resident. She said while an NGO provides food to about 50-100 people a day, it is barely enough. “There are 40-50 residents in my block alone who cannot cook on their own. The urgent need is cooked food,” she said, adding that the government needs to arrange food and not just the supplies. She said that the Rs 1,000 and civil supplies given by the government in the first week of April were almost over. “I fear that we may not die of the virus, but of hunger,” said Sujatha.
Community kitchens
With petty shops shut within resettlement sites, the residents are forced to crowd the few vegetable shops in the neighbourhood. It is impossible to practice social distancing in a space like that, said A Devaneyan, director, Thozhamai, who has been involved in relief work in the slum resettlement over the last couple of weeks. “The government efficiently converts schools into voting booths. Similarly, it should set up temporary community kitchens in the government schools in zones where population density is high,” he said.
Hit hard
Thousands of unorganised workers, especially senior citizens and people with disabilities, were evicted from slums and resettled here away from the city
Some houses also lack LPG gas connections
Very few ration and vegetable shops near the area