Series: Inside Perumbakkam Slum Resettlement Colony

For slum dwellers evicted from the banks of the Adyar and Cooum rivers in Chennai, currently residing in Perumbakkam, access to food rations under the Public Distribution System (PDS) is proving to be one arduous process. In addition to lack of educational facilities for children and infrastructural inadequacies highlighted in earlier articles in Citizen Matters Chennai, severe lapses in the functioning of the government-organised PDS, leading to insufficient essential commodities that families are dependent on, have also come to light. Inadequate numbers of PDS centres For the estimated number of 7600 families in Perumbakkam, there is only one PDS centre,…

Rows of eight-storied buildings on both sides of Ezhil Nagar Main Road of Perumbakkam paint an impressive picture of the resettlement colonies constructed by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB). The residents, who were evicted from the slums alongside Adyar and Cooum Rivers after the 2015 floods, live in these buildings which are apparently quite well-maintained. But is life really as rosy for the residents here? The glaring deficiencies can only be spotted once one steps inside these colonies and looks deeper.     In an earlier article on the Perumbakkam resettlement, Citizen Matters exposed the pathetic conditions in a primary…

On a humid Thursday afternoon, a group of students, with torn maroon uniforms and bruises on their malnourished bodies, make their way out from the primary school in Perumbakkam resettlement colony.  Bunking the first class after the lunch break, students are busy making plans for the day. While one student suggests fishing in a swamp opposite the settlement, another wants to play cricket. The teacher-in-charge at the primary school turns a blind eye to the mass bunking, perhaps because it would take the load off her shoulders. It is only the noise made by the kids that could give you a…