The Hindu               18.12.2013

Ragpickers now have a shelter

The past eight years, 14-year-old Sasidharan spent most of his days picking waste at the Kodungaiyur dumping yard in north Chennai.

The streets of Kodungaiyur have been his home, giving him sleepless nights, what with having to cope with the cold/heat, mosquitoes and dogs sniffing at his ankles.

But the past three days have been different for a handful of boys like Sasidharan as they now have a place to live in.

A newly-inaugurated shelter — supported by the Chennai Corporation and run by Arunodhaya, a centre for street and working children — in R.R. Nagar, Kodungaiyur, has opened its doors to boys involved in ragpicking at the yard.

“We conducted a study on children picking waste at the dumping yard and identified 25 boys. Most of them had no education, suffered from poor health, addiction to alcohol and also drug abuse,” said Virgil D’Sami, executive director of Arunodhaya.

The shelter, according to her, was the first step towards intervention for the boys. “This is a transit place where they can stay. We will motivate them to study and trace their families. If they do not have a family, we can send them to institutions. We are working on linking with nearby Chennai schools and vocational training centres,” she said.

Inaugurated on December 13, the shelter now has eight boys. “These boys, aged between 12 and 18, are mostly orphans or have single parents or have run away from home. Some of them said they had slept in gunny bags, unable to tolerate the chill at night,” said Santhana Mary, thematic facilitator, Arunodhaya.

Sasidharan, who ran away from his home in Andhra Pradesh, allegedly due to ill-treatment, said, “I collect waste from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the yard and earn at least Rs. 300 per day. I have been sleeping peacefully after coming to the shelter.”

Fourteen-year-old Kumar is also happy at the shelter. “I had been living alone after my parents died a year ago. When it rained, I slept inside share autos. Now, I have a place to stay at and sleep in. The shelter has fans and mats for us,” he said.

P. Kuganantham, health officer of the Corporation, said this was part of their initiative to set up night shelters for the homeless. “The purpose of this home is to provide food, accommodation, education and rehabilitation for boys involved in ragpicking,” he said.

The Hindu               18.12.2013

Over two lakh houses for slum dwellers

T. Ramakrishnan

Proposing a massive housing scheme for slum dwellers in municipalities and town panchayats, the State government has planned to construct around 2.15 lakh dwelling units at a cost of about Rs.13,455 crore.

If this proposal were to fructify, 25 per cent of urban slum families in these two categories of urban local bodies would be covered.

There are 126 municipalities and 528 town panchayats in the State. Kancheepuram, Cuddalore, Thanjavur, Dindigul, Theni and Tirunelveli account for about 35 per cent of the share.

The proposal has been listed in the prime slot of the chapter, titled ‘Grants for State Specific Needs,’ of the State government’s memorandum submitted to the 14{+t}{+h}Finance Commission on Monday.

The government has requested the Finance Commission to recommend an assistance of 50 per cent (Rs. 7,150 crore) of the project cost, as it is of the view that the remaining 50 per cent can be met through its schemes and other programmes.

As per the government’s plan, the scheme is to be taken up during 2015-2020. Of the total number (2,15,283) of houses, 1,46,392 will come up in municipalities and 68,891 in town panchayats. Keeping in mind the need for minimal displacement of slum dwellers, only 43,056 houses will be built after resettlement of the people. The remaining 1,72,227 houses will be raised through in-situ development. The unit cost is estimated at Rs. six lakh for in-situ development and Rs. 7.5 lakh for resettlement. The proposal has been formulated as there is not much scope under the existing schemes and programmes to address the housing problem of slum dwellers.

At present, 44,870 tenements are being constructed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission at a cost of Rs. 2,431 crore in Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore municipal corporations, the total number of municipal corporations being 10. The tenements are slated for completion by 2015.

As for the remaining slums in the 10 corporations, the government has decided to construct one lakh houses under the Rajiv Awas Yojana by 2017. On completion of these programmes, all the corporations will become slum-free, according to the government’s memorandum.