To ensure a decent livelihood for residents of Kakanji Nagar, who were evicted and resettled in the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) tenements at Athipattu, the board has come up with a slew of measures including skill training and distribution of tool kits for setting up their own business. It also plans to hold a job fair soon.
Over 1,500 families, who were living on the Chennai Metrowater lines in Kakkanji Nagar on New Avadi Road, were evicted last year.
In a bid to ensure that their livelihood is not affected, the TNSCB, through its Community Development Wing, imparted training to 950 individuals in different skills including tailoring, driving, painting, beautician course among others before they were shifted, officials said.
M.S. Shanmugam, TNSCB managing director, recently distributed tool kits to those who underwent the training. One such beneficiary is 18-year-old M. Sneha. “I have to work and meet the expenses in my house. I was initially thinking of going for work. But I underwent the three-month beautician course. I now plan to start my own centre,” she said.
A. Satish, another beneficiary, is an M.Com Second Year student at Pachaiyappa’s College. He got a driving licence with the help of the TNSCB. “As of now I work part-time as a pizza delivery boy to meet my educational expenses. With the driving licence, I will now drive call-taxi at nights and in due course purchase my own car,” he said. The TNSCB also plans to help residents get bank loans to start their own business.
“We want them to become entrepreneurs and not merely work for others,” said Mr. Shanmugam.
Job fair soon
A job fair will also be organised in Athipattu after the Lok Sabha elections are over. Around 250 youngsters/job seekers are expected to benefit.
Meanwhile, Vanessa Peter, policy researcher, Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), called for uniformity in executing the Resettlement and Rehabilitation programmes. “They are executed without a concrete policy and are discriminatory in nature.” she said.