Living conditions of children and women residing in Perumbakkam

Compiled by the Information Resource Center for Deprived Urban Communities September 23, 2016

Background

On February 3, 2016, local authorities in , , with no prior warning, forcibly evicted 43 families living in the neighborhood of JJ Nagar and relocated them to the resettlement site of Perumbakkam. The evicted families had previously been identified under the World Bank funded Sustainable Urban Development Program and have since received partial compensation from the Corporation of Chennai and the World Bank. However, the lack of facilities, services and infrastructure in Perumbakkam has had a disproportionate impact on women, children, the elderly and those with disabilities. The Information Resource Center for Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC) has compiled the following report to highlight the precarious living condition of women and children residing in Perumbakkam.

Early Childhood Care Infrastructure mapping conducted by IRCDUC researchers and volunteers reveals that there are only 4 Anganwadi (early childhood care) Centers in Perumbakkam. Of the four Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), one is not functional. This is a clear violation of the Government of India’s Integrated Child Development Service Scheme (ICDS). Based on the judgment of the Supreme Court dated 12 December, 2006

“Government of India shall ensure that population norms for opening of AWCs must not be revised upward under any circumstances. While maintaining the upper limit of one AWC per 1000 population, the minimum limit for opening of a new AWC is a population of 300 may be kept in view. Further, rural communities and slum dwellers should be entitled to an ‘anganwadis on Anganwadi Centre in Perumbakkam demand’ (not later than three months) from the date of demand in cases where a settlement has at least 40 children under six but no anganwadi.”

Since the floods of December 2015, 1,819 families (including those from JJ Nagar) have been evicted to Perumbakkam. Flood affected families alone would require 7 Anganwadi Centers. Accounting for the total population of residents in Perumbakkam, 80 centers are needed, at a minimum, to meet the requirements of families. There are only 3 functional Anganwadi Centers. It must be noted that most Anganwadi Centers function within residences and not as a separate space that was specifically designed for this purpose.

Families have raised the following concerns regarding the quality of care available at the centers. • Anganwadi workers are not regularly present. • The quality of service provided in the centers is poor and hence, parents are reluctant to send their children. • Of the 3 functional centers, 2 centers do not have maintenance staff. Teachers are expected to be responsible for the upkeep of the centers. • Residents have access to crèche services provided by NGOs. However, the services rendered are limited to education and nutrition. The scope Anganwadi centers, under ICDS, is meant to be broader - catering to neo and post-natal care, immunization and health referral services for mothers, children and adolescent girls. None of these services are provided in Perumbakkam.

Primary and Secondary Education

A classroom in the primary school

A study conducted by IRCDUC surveying resettled flood-affected families in Perumbakkam revealed that 18% of children have dropped out of school/anganwadis centres. 23% of parents cited a lack of adequate schools or anganwadis centers as the reason for their children dropping out. Children who had been attending schools in their previous neighborhoods dropped out owing to the lengthy commute. Parents also cited the lack of safety in Perumbakkam as one of the reasons for their hesitation to enroll their children in local schools, especially girl children.

There is a deficit of infrastructure related to education in Perumbakkam. There is one primary school and one high school. The school buildings are currently under construction and as such, both schools are functioning within an apartment building that was built for residential purposes. The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board has violated the rights of children by failing to provide appropriate infrastructure for schools. A survey of schools in Perumbakkam reveals violations of the following provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009:

Provisions under the Right of Violations of the Act and the Impact on Children to Free and Compulsory the Safety of Children Education Act, 2009 For carrying out the provisions of this For an expected population of nearly Act, the appropriate Government and 95,000 people (23,000 households), the the local authority shall establish, promised services related to education will within such area or limits of not be adequate. The population of school neighbourhood, as may be prescribed, going children is expected to be 19,000 a school, where it is not so students. There is a need for at least 11 established, within a period of three schools with approximately 2000-student years from the commencement of the capacity. However, provisions have been Act. (Section 6) made for only 9 schools. Till date, no school building has been completed even though over 5000 families are currently residing in Perumbakkam. The term “compulsory education” The building allotted for the school in means obligation of the appropriate Perumbakkam is a tenement constructed Government to (Section 8) – for residential purposes. The school will be (d) provide infrastructure including functioning alongside the tenements school building, teaching staff and where the people reside. There is no learning equipment; exclusive structure constructed for the school despite the fact that people are No school shall be established, or already resettled in the site. recognized, under section 18, unless it fulfills the norms and standards The tenement allotted for schools is not specified in the schedule {Section 19 safe and suitable for children. The (1)}. Specific clauses in the schedule building was not designed as a school and (related to school building) there are safety issues to consider, • (vi) play ground including absence of emergency exit for a • (vii) arrangements for securing 7-floor building. Moreover, there is also no the school building by provision for a playground, boundary wall boundary wall or fencing or fencing.

236 students are enrolled in the primary school. All 7 teachers in the school are not permanent staff members, they were sent on deputation. 7 apartments in a block have been converted to make up the school building. There is no

Tenements used as a School Building proper ventilation, no library nor labs, no staff rooms or adequate toilet facility. Discussions with parents reveals that teachers are not regularly present and in their absence children are made to supervise classes for the entire day.

The conditions are similar in the secondary school. There are permanent teachers on staff yet children complain that teachers do not regularly show up for classes. Two classes did not have teachers during the day IRCDUC visited the school. As there is no higher secondary school in Perumbakkam, children find it difficult to travel elsewhere to enroll in class 11 and 12, to complete the final two years of their schooling.

Classroom in the Secondary School

It is to be noted that announcements made to construct more schools and facilities have been taken up only after the relocation of families to Perumbakkam. Only temporary and inadequate solutions are being offered to resettled families. Until additional schools are operationalized, children will have to continue to avail their education in temporary classrooms without any proper facilities.

Perumbakkam: Unsafe for Women

The roof plaster collapsed in one of the houses in A Block in Peurmbakkam. Fortunately, there was no one present in the house at that time and nobody was hurt.

Recent research undertaken by IRCDUC reveals that Perumbakkam is not safe for women and girl children. The resettlement process has been marked by gender- insensitivity, and the rights of women have not been protected. There is also no separate women’s police station within the settlement. There were instances where men who were undressed knocked on doors at midnight. Girl children pointed out that they were scared to venture out alone as strangers often harass them.

It is to be noted that Perumbakkam is located in the fringes of the city and the terrain consists of reserved forest area, agricultural area and water bodies. This area is being converted into a primary residential area and as a result ‘foxes run free in Perumbakkam’. 1 Discussion with the communities reveals that a large group of foxes roam around in this site. A news report carried in also points out that “Foxes entered an apartment in broad daylight. The house was open. A lady was in the kitchen and her 5-year old was playing in the hall. Luckily someone spotted the animal and shooed it away with a stick… In the last two months, around 15 cows, pigs, chickens and squirrels were attacked and devoured by foxes. After the fox menace grew, people began taking their cattle elsewhere, some even keep them in the apartment”

1 Foxes run free in Perumbakkam, Aditi. R., The Hindu, Dated 31 May 2016, http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/foxes-run-free-in- perumbakkam/article8669791.ece

Conclusion The specific impacts to families, especially women and children summarized above, have been raised in the collective and individual petitions signed and sent to the Grievance Redress Committee (dated July 08, 2016). To date, the grievances have not been addressed by either the local authorities or the World Bank.