TAMIL NADU SLUM CLEARANCE BOARD
DOCUMENT
ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES 1981 – 2005
Community Development
wing was created in 1978 at the then Madras Metropolitan Development Authority
to ensure community participation in the slum improvement programme during
planning, execution and post execution stages and to organise
employment training programme for the unemployed youth in slums. In its Aide
Memoir of October 1979, MUDP II the World Bank had stipulated as precondition
for negotiation that community development personnel should be added to Tamil
Nadu Slum Clearance Board’s and Tamil Nadu Housing Board’s engineering
divisions implementing the slum improvement and Sites and Services respectively
to their central administration under the authority of Superintending Engineer.
The World Bank observed that since MMDA is a planning body and it need not
burden itself with implementing programmes. Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board
which was carrying out Slum Improvement Programme had built up rapport with the
slum communities and would be able to carry out the programme more effectively.
The World Bank also insisted that the Community Development wing should handle
the issues relating to people’s participation in the World Bank aided schemes.
Accordingly the Community Development wing vide G.O.Ms.No. 1380 dated 21.10.80 wad bifurcated and
transferred to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and Tamil Nadu Housing Board on March 28,
1981. Since then the Community Development wing headed by a Chief Community Development
Officer is functioning in TNSCB with Community Development Officers and
Community Officers.
The
Work specified for C.D. wing at the time of transfer was to carry out
Employment Training Programme and Community Development Programmes which include
finalising lay outs for slums to be improved under
MUDP in consultation with the people. Besides, C.D. wing was functioning as
liaison between the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and the Slum Community channelising the Board’s programmes through
various Non-Governmental Organisations working at the grass roots. The C.D.
wing was also coordinating with the Government Departments and funding agencies
like UNICEF, CRY and pooling their resources together in the best interest of
the slum community. It was ensured that all the programmes reach the target
group with the participation of the community. The following Community
Development Programmes have been carried out by C.D. wing some of which are
regular and some of the other programmes are need based. The following are the
programmes carries out by Community Development wing.
1. Community planning and participation – liaisoning with the community for
participation.
2. Employment
Training Program for slum youth
3. Survey
of Chennai city slums for preparation of ‘Slum Profiles’ for future
schemes.
4. UNICEF assisted Urban Community Development Programme
Implemented in MUDP I & II Schemes, covering 10,000 families in 25 slums.
5.
Motivation meetings with the community for the acceptance of the scheme.
Motivating
the community to sign LCS agreement in TNUDP schemes.
6. Entrepreneurial
Development in slums – Slum Industries Expo.
7. Youth
Development – Inter slum Olympics.
8. Cash
loan scheme and Mass Housing Programme.
9. Composite
credit mechanism.
10. Resettlement
and Rehabilitation Schemes
Velachery,
Kodungayur,
Pallikarani,
Okkiam Thoraipakkam.
11. CDD Watsan Project (Control of Diarrheal
diseases – Water and
Sanitation)
12. Child
Labour Elimination Project.
13. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Project
14.
Health and Sanitation Project
i.
Nutrition
Demonstration project
ii.
De-addiction
camps
iii. Smokeless Chulah
iv. National Malaria Eradication Project
v.
Awareness camps
vi. Pulse Polio Immunisation
vii. Screening of educative film shows
viii. Total Literacy Campaign
ix. Campaign to prevent fire accidents in slums.
15. Community
Resource Development.
16. IYSH – International year of Shelter for Homeless – Ennore project.
17. Celebration
of World Habitat Day.
18. Formation of Associations in the tenemental schemes for Hire Purchase Scheme.
19. Evolving
model projects
i. Nagooran Thottam
ii. Greams Road slum
20. Integrated
Development of coastal slums.
21. Enumeration
and Verification of slums areas and tenemental schemes.
22. Socio
Economic Survey of households in waterways in Chennai city.
23. Training
and Research Activities.
24. Solid
Waste Disposal Awareness Campaigns.
25.
Provision of Bunks for Women Self Help Groups.
26. Entrepreneurial
Development Programme for Women.
1.
COMMUNITY PLANNING AND PARTICIPATION
The Staff of C.D. wing regularly liaison with
community for all the Board’s programmes to ensure people’s participation with
the conviction that any programme for the people should be need based and it
would be a success only with their participation. The success of the MUDP I and
II could be greatly attributed to the involvement of the C.D. wing staff in
taking the programme to the people, consulting with prior to the implementation
and incorporating their requirements and aspirations in the plan. It was
greatly possible to secure requisite sites from the people for setting up
community assets only with the involvement of the community in the planning
process. The community participation also smoothened
the improvement work and the repayment of dues to the Board. The role of C.D.
wing to ensure people’s participation during planning, execution and post
execution stages of slum improvement programmes was fulfilled by organizing
regular meetings and make people understand and accept the programme. This work
was carried out during the implementation of MUDP I (1978 – 83
) and MUDP II (1983 – 88 ).
i. Improvement
of private slums
Government
of Tamil Nadu have ordered in G.O. Ms.No.291 Housing and Urban Development
Department dated 15.3.88 that the private lands which are infested with slums
may be bought from the private owner at the rate of Rs.5000/. per ground and improved with basic amenities and assigned to
the occupants. G.O. Ms.No.357 dated 22.3.88 H & UD Department specifies
that the private slum may be improved under land readjustment method ( LASER ), whereby
the private land owner is given prime part of his encroached land and remaining
land is shared among the encroachers. The role of C.D. staff was to coordinate
the process of land transfer and allotment of plots to occupants. It was a
liaison wok between the land owner and the encroachers in order to negotiate
purchase of land and sharing of land as the case may be. The private slums
negotiated under this programme were Pallavasal, Samiar Thottam, Pycrofts Nagar
etc. The land owners of these private slums were unwilling to sell their land
at this low price. The negotiations for the land sharing method was also not
successful because the private land owners as well as the occupants were unwilling
to move to rear side of the slum in the readjustment scheme. Besides there are
no valid records for most of the slum on private lands and lands belonging to
religious institutions. Hence this scheme of improvement on private land was
dropped by the Board.
2. EMPLOYMENT TRAINING PROGRAMME
The
Employment Training Programme was conceived as a sub component of slum
improvement programme to bring about overall development in the social and
economic life of the people. The programme aims to impart and upgrade the
skills of the slum youth to make them more employable through formal and
non-formal training courses. The growing metropolis like Chennai requires a lot
of skilled persons like carpenters, welders, electrician, nurse aid, plumber,
turner, computer persons and the training trades are selected suitably. There
are about 40 trades in which training is offered. These training courses are organised in coordination with Government, reputed
Non-Governmental Organisations and commercial institutions having requisite
infrastructure. These youth have been trained in 40 types of trades with the
duration of training ranging from 1-6 months. This scheme is being organised with the grant from the Housing and
Urban Development Department of Government of Tamil Nadu. Besides
grants were also received from Department of Adi-dravida
and Tribal Welfare Department. Evaluation on the effectiveness and
usefulness of the Employment programme was made during 1986. The survey results
indicated that the training programme orgainised by
Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board has definite employment potential and
71% have found employment. It was undoubtedly confirmed that Board’s
training programme provided skills to schools dropouts who otherwise would have
been unemployed. Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board has so far trained 11,049 number of boys
and girls at a total cost of Rs.187.09
lakhs.
Physical and financial achievement form March 1981 to
March, 2006
Year |
Physical achievement |
Financial achievement (Rs. In lakhs) |
|
1981-82 |
573 |
1.26 |
|
1982-83 |
86 |
1.18 |
|
1983-84 |
80 |
1.27 |
|
1984-85 |
375 |
1.87 |
|
1085-86 |
334 |
3.72 |
|
1986-87 |
549 |
5.76 |
|
1987-88 |
910 |
14.42 |
|
1988-89 |
649 |
3.59 |
|
1989-90 |
572 |
3.00 |
|
1990-91 |
2745 |
61.00 |
|
1991-92 |
275 |
3.00 |
|
1992-93 |
788 |
15.03 |
|
1993-94 |
690 |
12.25 |
|
1994-95 |
320 |
3.85 |
|
1995-96 |
-- |
-- |
|
1996-97 |
-- |
-- |
|
1997-98 |
400 |
3.00 |
|
1998-99 |
-- |
-- |
|
1999-2000 spill over to 2001-02 |
95 |
1.57 |
|
2003-04 spill over from previous years |
95 |
1.32 |
|
2004-05 |
773 |
25 |
|
2005-06 |
740 |
25 |
|
Total |
11,049 |
187.09 |
i. Self
employment loans
Self employment program to encourage youth trained under Employment Training Program to take self employment and to refer small business people in slums for small loans was taken up and they were linked to nationalised banks. Loans at different rate of interest of 4% were advanced to small business people and people with new ventures. This program was discontinued since the Differential rate of interest scheme was scrapped and Banks extended weaker section loans directly to the beneficiaries.
3. SURVEY
OF CHENNAI CITY SLUMS FOR PREPARATION OF ‘SLUM PROFILES’ FOR FUTURE SCHEMES
A
Survey for identification of slums for future improvement work was taken to
cover the whole city of
4. UNICEF ASSISTED URBAN COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMME
Urban
Community Development programme was formulated to raise the living standards of
the urban poor by providing integrated service in environmental sanitation,
healthcare, education, nutrition and other socio economic programmes. This
project was implemented during 1983-85 with financial assistance from UNICEF
and covered 10,000 families in 25 MUDP areas. The programme aimed at
v
Increasing the
awareness of the community on environmental sanitation through
training/campaign.
v
Fixing
responsibilities to the local associations for ensuring cleaning habits by the
individual households and at times taking over responsibility of maintaining
the area.
v
Coordinating
with maintenance agencies like Chennai Corporation and Chennai Metro Water
Supply and Sewerage Board.
The
following are the programmes carried out under the Urban Community Development
Program.
|
S.No. |
Programme
|
No. of
slums |
No.
of beneficiary/families |
|
1. |
Health
Education programme (one day) |
25 |
500 |
|
2. |
Sanitation
campaign ( two days ) |
25 |
10,000 |
|
3. |
Health/sanitation
awareness exhibitions organized ( education through talks, films and
exhibitions ) |
20 |
8,000 |
|
4. |
Family welfare programme
campaigns ( in collaboration with Madras Corporation ) |
20 |
8,000 |
|
5. |
Immunisation campaigns, ( in collaboration with Chennai Corporation |
---- |
---- |
5. MOTIVATION MEETING WITH THE COMMUNITY FOR
THE
ACCEPTANCE OF THE SCHEME AND SIGNING OF LCS
AGREEMENT
While implementing the MUDP and TNUDP schemes community meetings were conducted to get their co-operation in accepting the scheme so that there is no hurdle in collection of monthly installments towards land cost and improvement cost. Motivation campaign was carried out through out the collection period for sustained progress.
Initially,
there was resistance from the community for the TNUDP schemes hence the people
had to be motivated on the importance of signing Lease cum Sale Agreement with
the Board and payment of monthly installments to the Board. Intensive
door-to-door campaign was made in all the TNUDP areas to motivate the
households to accept the scheme and pay the land and the improvement cost to
the Board.
Motivation
campaigns were conducted in the tenemental schemes to facilitate enhanced revenue
collection by the revenue machinery. Cultural programmes like Theukoothu and Villupattu with
emphasis on the need for prompt payment of rental dues to the Board were organised. Besides meetings were also
conducted periodically on the need for regular payment of dues.
6. ENTREPRENEURIAL
DEVELOPMENT – SLUM INDUSTRIES EXPO
Slum
dwellers engaged in manufacture of handicrafts, footwear, furniture, consumable
items like soap, agarbathi, curios, etc., face
marketing problems and while going through the middlemen have to share their
meager profit with them. In order to link the slum manufacturer and the buyer, exhibitions were
conducted in vantage locations for the benefit of the slum small entrepreneurs.
This three day exhibitions were organised twice with the funds
mobilised from corporate sector and the Non-Governmental
Organisations engaged in the manufacturing activity also benefited from this.
Slum
entrepreneurs venture into manufacture of products but are discouraged due to
cumbersome procedure in getting finance, lack of marketing and technical assistance.
Hence it was proposed to set up a marketing support for slum entrepreneurs. To
get the opinion of the experts in the Government and Non-Governmental
organisations and to formulate a system for the project, a one day workshop was
conducted. A working group consisting of specialists and Non-Governmental
organisations was formed to work out the modalities in functioning of a
marketing federation. This project could be revived and exhibitions could be
conducted periodically and the functions of the working group for the formation
of the set up for the marketing support for the slum entrepreneur may be
followed up.
7. YOUTH DEVELOPMENT – INTERSLUM OLYMPICS
In
order to divert the energy of slum youth in a constructive
way sports activities were organised in slums.
Competitive spirit was encouraged among the slum youth through inter slum
sports. Slum Olympics was organised in coordination with
Exnora International and NGOs and CBOs
in 3 Corporation zones of the city covering Saidapet,
Adyar, Pulianthope,
Perambur, Anna Nagar, Shonoy
Nagar, and Nungambakkam
areas.
8.
CASH LOANS SCHEME AND MASS HOUSING PROGRAMME
Cash
Loan Scheme envisaged provision of Rs.8,000/- loan
assistance to slum families for construction of houses using low cost
materials. This loan was given in 3 stages and is to be recovered over a period
of 20 years. The role of C.D. staff was to identify the beneficiaries and
monitor the proper utilisation of the loan amount besides encouraging
the families to use low cost materials. This programme was carried out in many
slum areas involving Non-Governmental organisations whose inputs included
technical know how financial supplement to the loan amount with a minimum of
Rs.2500/- to each dwelling unit. The involvement of NGOs in the construction of
cost effective dwelling units has been success in the four Resettlement and
Rehabilitation Schemes. The role of Community Development staff was
v
To identify the
genuine beneficiaries and educate them on the procedures for availing the loan.
v
To identify the
Non-Governmental Organisations to supplement the resources of TNSCB/slum
beneficiaries for the house building.
v
Monitoring the
progress leading to proper utilisation of facilities.
v
Organising and educating
the people in low-cost technologies for housing and sanitation.
v
Encouraging
completion of work in ‘Self – Help’ basis and educating people for maintaining
clean environment.
The Mass Housing grant program ( 1986 – 88 ) envisaged a loan of Rs.1,500/- for the upgradation of the houses and C.D. staff were involved in the distribution and sale of applications in 45 towns and scrutiny of the same for sanction.