EDGE OF SURVIVAL

Caste divides deny marginalised communities land, resources and essential aid, leaving them more vulnerable to climate disasters

- MADHUMITHA VISWANATH

FOR ANITHA K (name changed) of Chennai, the Michaung cyclone in December 2023, brought no surprises. Previous storms in 2015, 2017 and 2021 taught her to store ration, power banks and water in the topmost loft of the second storey in her house. "Every year, we face relentless rains, flooding, contamination of water and food, power outages and job loss. Basic resources, already scarce, vanish during disasters. It is better to stock up," she says.

Anitha lives in the Perumbakkam resettlement colony, 30 km from the Chennai city centre. Previously, she lived in a thatched-roof house along the Cooum river in Chennai, which was prone to inundation and forced her family to frequently seek shelter in relief camps. Perumbakkam was in fact set up by the Tamil Nadu government to relocate people in flood-prone areas. However, it has proven equally vulnerable given that it is built on low-lying marshland. And most of its inhabitants, including Anitha, are of Scheduled Caste or Dalit communities.

According to the “Chennai Climate Action Plan” published in 2022, some 48 per cent of slum settlements are projected to be at high risk for inundation of 1.5 metres by 2028. Most of the people living in these settlements are from marginalised communities; Tamil Nadu is home to 5.8 million slum dwellers, of which 32 per cent belong to Dalit communities, according to the 2011 Census. Chennai alone has 1.35 million Dalit slum-dwellers.