Most slum evictions in Chennai adversely impacted resettled families, says study

According to estimates, 65,000 families are likely to be evicted from Chennai Corporation zones, IRCDUC founder Vanessa Peter said.
| Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B (File image)

Of the 95 settlements evicted in Chennai from December 2015 to 2025, social impact assessment to mitigate the adverse impacts by evolving resettlement action plan were facilitated only for five settlements, according to a study.

According to a report ‘Revisiting Urban Resettlement and Rehabilitation in Tamil Nadu: A critical analysis of Politics, Practices, and Future Directions,’ by Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), some internationally financed projects have a specific pre-eviction preparatory process that includes the resettlement action plan and dissemination of the plans to the community, whereas those evicted under State government funded projects, post-disaster rehabilitation, restoration of water bodies and based on court orders are not following such processes.

The report called for prioritisation of in-situ development or providing houses within 5 km in the proximate locations. IRCDUC founder Vanessa Peter said: “The State government must reconsider and withdraw the regressive cutoff date policy and uphold equity in housing rights.”

“One of the reasons for the non-availability of adequate infrastructure and gaps in livelihood restoration is the absence of socio-economic demographic details of the resettled families. Since May 2025, eviction drives are yet again undertaken, and families face several violations because of lack of policy and legal safeguards,” she said.

These inconsistencies and discriminatory practices would continue to exist till a robust policy was formulated to govern all the resettlement in the State. The Madras High Court has also observed that the mode of resettlement was a matter purely within the policy domain where the elected government would decide on the mode of resettlement, she said.

“According to estimates, 65,000 families are likely to be evicted from Chennai Corporation zones. Therefore, the existing framework should be strengthened to avoid discriminatory practices and ensure universal application of the safeguards beyond projects or funding,” Ms. Vanessa demanded.