Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXVI No. 02, May 1-15, 2016
The harsh realities, post-flood
The floods of December 2015 that ravaged several districts of Tamil Nadu will never be forgotten by those who were present and experienced it all. Never had people seen floodwaters rise to such levels in urban areas. Hundreds lost their lives, thousands were rendered homeless, and acress to paddy fields were destroyed. As always, the poor and marginalised suffered the most. Today, their woes have only multiplied.
”Cann a dominant caste person who has studied in an elitist institution, possesses immense wealth, commutes in a large air-conditioned and bullet-proof vehicle and has bodyguards, all of which the government provides, relate to the daily challenges of people like me? Politicians visit socioeconomically marginalised neighbourhoods before an election with many promises which are mostly forgotten or fulfilled minimally. This will surely repeat during the upcoming elections to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. I will be cautious about whom I vote for and will request my family, friends, neighbours and everyone else to think about the candidates they choose.” These are the words of Suresh, a 30-year old who drives a taxi part-time to support his preparation for the State Public Services Commission examination and his wife’s undergraduate education.
Suresh belongs to a Dalit family that migrated to Chennai from Tindivanam many years ago. The family’s small plot of land on which rice was grown did not yield enough, thanks to insufficient rain. Suresh’s father, age 55, drives a cycle-rickshaw transporting goods. He earns around 300 rupees a day which he spends on alcohol. His mother, nearing 55, takes care of the family expenses from her earnings as a daily-wage labourer.
“The only family ration card that we have is in the name of my mother. She was allotted a tiny house which measures around 100 square feet by the state government. Situated in a locality of nearly 3500 residents in Chintadripet, that is close to the Chennai Central Railway Station, our house does not have enough space for all of us and is not fitted with a washroom. At present, my older brother, my wife and I live with our parents, as all the household appliances in the small house for which we paid a rent of 1000 rupees a month were damaged badly in the December floods. My wife and I are not entitled to the meagre compensation of 5000 rupees provided by the state government as we do not have a ration card,” says Suresh.
According to Suresh, women run the household in most of the families here, and educate their children, backed by responsibility and determination. However, the women are afraid they may be forced to relocate to Chemmancheri in Chennai’s outskirts, 30 km from where they work currently. If that happens, it will affect their livelihoods greatly. They also have no idea whether they will be provided houses promised by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board.
“Many men in my community spend much money and time in consuming liquor irrespective of their age and financial issues. In some families, they demand the expenses from the meagre earnings of their wives and mothers. Once the men start drinking alcohol, which often happens when they are in their twenties, they get addicted. And by the time they are 35 years old, they are either dead or in an extremely poor state of health and a burden on their family. I try my best to advise my male friends and acquaintances against consuming alcohol but very few of them pay attention,” Suresh explains.
Suresh points out that many Dalits, adivasis and others who belong to groups that are socio-economically backward are largely unaware of the benefits of having a caste certificate or the procedure to be followed to acquire one. Many of them do not have valid documents showing proof of address, or a high school certificate.
Then there is Sakthivel, age 34. He has studied up to Class X and is a carpenter. Sometimes, he is not paid for the work he does, making it difficult for him and his family. Sakthivel and his wife, who discontinued her education after Class XII, have enrolled daughter Anisha, 3, in a private school. “We are paying around 30,000 rupees per year for her fees which forms a major share of our household expenses. However, we are keen that Anisha studies to the extent possible, as we could not.
Also, after our father, who was a carpenter, passed away when we were in our teens, my brother and I dropped out of high school to earn our livelihood,” says Sakthivel. Sakthivel’s family including his mother and brother, live in a small house that they jointly own, near Anna Nagar. He says many people in the area badly affected by the floods are yet to receive monetary or other assistance from the government.
Far away, in Thiruvallur District, Hema, a survivor of polio in her twenties, whose mother is an agricultural labourer, drives her vehicle over dusty and bumpy roads and through chaotic traffic from her village to reach the office of the NGO where she is employed. Some days, she goes around her block, meeting residents from marginalised families and talking to them about their basic rights and guiding them in obtaining scholarships, ration cards, pension, etc. Life, she says, has become much more difficult after the floods.
So, too, Chennamma, a woman from a disadvantaged background in her fifties who is compelled to work in the fields in Poondi Block to earn, after a fall and having a surgery done in her hip. Treatment in a government hospital is not completely free and she cannot afford the cost. And she doesn’t want to lose her daily wages when she is in hospital. – (Courtesy: Grassroots, a journal of the Press Institute of India.)
Pushpa Achanta
