The Crisis of Social Reproduction in Resettlement Colonies: A Case Study in Peri-Urban Chennai

Abstract

Chennai, India’s fourth largest metropolis is globalizing that includes urban renewal in the centre and large Special Economic Zones in the periphery. The latter is also the site of resettlement colonies of evicted people. Resettlement, as a consequence of government pursuing rapid economic growth via urban renewal, has multi-dimensional impacts. One of the main impacts is on their livelihoods. They depend on the opportunities in the places of their prior social and economic networks; from the places where they were evicted. This dependence also influences the return movement of people from the resettlement colony. On the other hand, as the city expands its urbanized territory, I explore if resettlement colonies can become spaces of opportunities for the people who are unable to pay higher housing rents in the city or series of small trades or for new migrants in search of jobs. This paper examines the livelihood issues of a resettlement colony in peri-urban Chennai. Fieldwork has been conducted in Chemmencherry, a resettlement colony. The case study method is used, as this method helps to capture the ground reality and micro processes at work. This study shows mixed results. The resettlement colony provides opportunities for certain groups of people and creates negative consequences for some other groups. Poverty is, however conspicuous among those forcefully resettled as well as among people who voluntarily migrated in to resettlement colony. This clearly shows that policy introduces a spatial characterization of poverty – pushing it away from central city areas to the peri-urban with differential impacts on various groups. The social reproduction in resettlement areas is under crisis and there is an urgent need to develop policies and to explore political processes which helps the resettled people to overcome from this crisis.