Slums, resettlement, and tenure in JNNURM & RAY

History of Slum Policies The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Act was passed in 1971, and was the first and only piece of legislation on how the government should intervene in slums The Act was widely considered progressive, and established the Slum Clearance Board Under the Act, the only purpose of intervening in slums was to improve them, not for relocation or to make way for new infrastructure.

Declarations- procedure Government authorities identify slums, once they are satisfied that a certain area fits the perceived definition of a “slum” Areas identified as “slums” are then declared or recognized as slums. These declared slums become the responsibility of the TNSCB to improve, through tenement construction or environmental improvements

Round 1 of declarations: 1971 A total of 1202 slums were identified and declared on government, private and temple land (based on a comprehensive survey). There were 7.37 lakh slum dwellers in Chennai City alone, representing 1/3 of the population then The recognised slum areas occupied around 6% (7.2km) of the total area of Chennai then 17 slums were added to this list by a Government Order in 1985.

The government has not been following the procedures outlined in the Act Shockingly, no new slums have been declared since 1985 Although the government has ‘improved’ all declared slums, slum schemes can only be implemented in declared slums, and so undeclared slums have been neglected This lack of government recognition leads to a gross underestimation of the true slum population and the need for services. It means that all new slums that have come up since 1985 are in a legal grey area, and government can exercise power over them at will.

Slums take up an extremely small amount of land in the city. The 1202 slums declared in 1971 occupied only 7.2 square kilometers,6% of the city at the time In today’s expanded city area however, all declared slums only take up 1.7% of the city area (72% of current land use estimated to be residential). All unrecognized slums identified in a survey commissioned by TNSCB in 2002 take up only 1.1% of the total expanded Chennai Corporation area.

Instead of declaration, RESETTLEMENT (for some)

Perumbakkam & Property Rights More than 23,000 homes planned This conformed with JNNURM’s call for property rights because residents were able to get ownership papers for their homes, but only a limited number of units able to get these “property rights” G + 7 buildings with elevators planned, which raises concerns about maintenance and costs

Property Rights under RAY Despite emphasis on in-situ redevelopment, same thing could happen under current guidelines of RAY Under Draft model Property rights to Slum Dwellers Act 2011 (avail. on the RAY website), every landless person living in a slum area or any urban area as of June 4, 2009 is eligible for a dwelling unit at an affordable cost and will be given a legal document of entitlement for the space. In situ redevelopment is not mandated, there is no set criteria for “tenability” or “objectionable,” no cap on percentage of slum-dwellers who are resettled, no strong protections against displacement and far-away resettlement.