o Table 3: Slum population in Tamil Nadu

2.4 Profile Slums of Chennai

The 2003-04 survey of slums undertaken by a private consultant for the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited (TNUIFSL) listed 242 ‘undeveloped’ slums within the limits of Chennai Municipal Corporation, housing around 72,000 families or 330,000 people, accounting for less than 10% of the city population. A large majority (65%) of these settlements were located on government land. Noteworthy, out of these 242 identified slums, 122 (41,683 families) were categorized as ‘objectionable’ slums, which comprised a majority of squatter settlements located along with waterways (73 slums housing about 29,144 families), the rest being located far from the city like road margins, railway track, and by the sea. Within the metropolitan area (but outside Chennai Municipal Corporation), 202 undeveloped slums were identified, out of which 90 located in objectionable areas, mostly squatter settlements along waterways and informal settlements along the seashore

.” However, this survey underestimated the actual number of undeveloped slums: during fieldwork conducted in 2011 and 2012, we identified in the metropolitan area thirty-year-old objectionable squatter settlements along the Buckingham Canal (such as Arignar Anna Nagar – Canal Bank Road, selected for our case study), which were not listed and mapped in the 200304 survey.”17Figure(09) shows the population of slums in Chennai 200118

Figure (10) shows the distribution of slums while figure (11) depicts the augmentation of slums through the years.

2.4.1The budding augmentation of slums

2.4.2 The misperception and neglect

Despite various planning principles (JNNURM and RAY), whose core idea was to provide a dignified living for slums, studies reveal that these programs showcased fewer effective methods to uplift the living conditions of the cities, most vulnerable habitats. Although the 1971 Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Act was imposed to identify slums of the state, it has remained as a matter of fact that there is not a single new slum that has been officially recognized in the city since 1985! It has nearly been 40 decades but still, the lethargy continues. The 1971 Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance clearly states that slums must be identified and recognized before any intervention. But it is clearly visible that now various resettlement policies are shifting the entire slum community to a whole new place! Also, the services provided are very meagre or not at all.

“Very little reliable information actually exists about these unrecognized slums but we found one study on them commissioned by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board in 2002. The study found a total of 444 unrecognized slums within the Chennai Metropolitan Area, with nearly half a million residents at the time, and an average of 620 people relying on a single public water facility in unrecognized slums within the city, far more than the norm of 75 people per water facility.”19

2.4.3 Were actions towards slums in Chennai nothing but a political interest?

As stated earlier there have been various transitions in schemes and policies towards the development of conditions in slums all implying only two different types of approach. On one hand, Improvement and Rehabilitation programs have been set in order to upgrade the living conditions of the slum dwellers, and on the other hand, the current policies focus on Resettlement and Rehousing interventions. These kinds of interventions to tackle slums are subjected to an incentive of politics and the change that follows. Figure (12) shows the objectives and strategies of TNSCB.20