A haven for social evils

By Feroze Ahmed

CHENNAI, NOV. 12. In less than two years, the Oggiyam Thoraipakkam colony, Kannagi Nagar, has earned the reputation of being a settlement of lawless intruders owing to a cocktail of social ills fermented by lack of employment.

Illicit liquor runs freely in this colony of uprooted slum dwellers.

More than 30 residents are reportedly selling arrack, sourced mostly from Naavalur and Neelankarai, allegedly with the connivance of police.

Raids conducted by the Prohibition Enforcement Wing have been effective, but nowadays dealers are informed beforehand by police, says a resident.

``A packet used to cost Rs.15 earlier, but the demand and supply is so high now that it has come down to about Rs. 8,'' says Madhavi, a women self-help group (SHG) leader.

Reportedly, ganja is also being sold here. Rowdyism and burglaries are common.

But, the police outpost in the Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) Colony has been unmanned for at least a month now.

The ills seemingly are rooted in the lack of employment opportunities for the 3,000 residents who were relocated here from different parts of Chennai in early 2000 and deprived of their livelihood.

So widespread is the malady that when the Kancheepuram Collector, Mr. K. Rajaraman, visited the colony on Sunday, he was flooded with requests for employment.

The neighbouring communities and industries, including the Oggiyam Thoraipakkam village, blacklisted the slum residents.

``Any violence or such incident is attributed to us. Kannagi Nagar residents are refused even domestic works,'' says Kala, another SHG leader.

The fund-starved Oggiyam Thoraipakkam village panchayat is reluctant to take over its maintenance.

Ostracized, the residents either seek work in the city or opt for making easy money, like trading in illicit liquor and narcotics.

Commuting to the city for daily labour is unfeasible. ``My husband spends about Rs.500 travelling to a hospital in Mylapore, where he works as a ward-boy,'' says Madhavi.

The family, like most others, is left with little else to meet daily requirements or pay their hire-purchase instalments and power connections.

As a result, the Slum Clearance Board is left with dues of more than Rs.30 lakhs in instalments.

``A `rent' of Rs. 75 a month is agreeable,'' says Pandi, a resident. Except a few, almost all the residents source electricity by hooking wires to the power lines than pay about Rs.500 for a connection.

In the last six months, at least two persons have been electrocuted by these illegal lines.

The TNSCB is initiating steps to impart vocational training skills and inviting nearby industries to provide employment.

Community development projects are encouraged, including formation of 20 women SHGs and a vocational training centre.

But, there has been little other effort to integrate the `outsiders' with the mainstream society though the second phase of the slum colony is almost ready for occupation.

Projects that could be of help are facing red tape. A Rs.25-lakh Japanese Government grant sanctioned in January to World Vision, an NGO, for running four day-care centres, a park and a playground in the scheme, has been caught in a bureaucratic whirlpool.

Clearly, the residents prefer their previous roughly- built huts to the well-constructed tenements here.

``We had enough for food and did not have to pay rent. We had enough work then. Now, we have no transport, no work, no food, but have to pay `rent','' says Arul, a resident.

(Names of the residents have been changed).

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