Pandi’s grandmother cradles him in her lap as he looks up with eyes of innocence. He is oblivious to the fact that he is naked, and will grow up unaware that living in a thatched hut with no running water or sanitation is far from what others would call normal.
The hamlet or locality of Urur Kuppam and Olcott Kuppam fall under Ward 176 (Besant Nagar) of the Chennai Corporation, but only on paper. The 1500 families living here are disregarded by the Corporation and deprived of fundamental infrastructural needs.
There exists a crass inequality in the area. Walking down the localities one sees the pristine real estate chunks of Besant Nagar – residents motoring along in their swanky cars through clean roads. Meanwhile, just a few hundred metres off, the residents of the kuppams walk half a kilometre through sandy stretches to defecate in the open because their area lacks a drainage system. Only one functional public toilet exists in an area where around 5000 residents are packed.
More than a third of the families scrape out livelihoods that correlate in some manner with the beach. Fishing and putting up bajji and ice vandi stalls on the beach are the major engines of the Urur-Olcott economy. The remaining people work as maids and drivers for households in Besant Nagar.
While the stalls fetch anywhere between nothing and Rs 1500 on a good day, the fishing community makes nothing when the seas are rough, and up to Rs 2000 during the peak of the fishing season from January to September.
During the iraal fish season, says Sankar, a fisherman, “we make Rs 20,000- 80,000 in one season, but the worst months are in the winter when we cannot even go to the sea for several days”. Nets are expensive. A standard nylon net costs Rs 80,000 and if crabs cut through them, repairs amount to around Rs 20,000. The cost of bigger nets runs into lakhs.
October to December are the leanest months. The Government has introduced a savings scheme whereby, if the fishermen save Rs 600 over nine months, the state and central governments contribute Rs 600 each. So they stand to get Rs 1800 through this scheme, in addition to the Rs 4000 disbursed as a relief fund to tide them over these three months.
Though life in the kuppam is tough, education has played a key role in the betterment of financial status in the area. With three schools in the neighbourhood, one of which goes up to Class 12, the area has seen rapid developments and the current generation is better off than their parents. Some youngsters work in companies such as ICICI bank, and at least ten kids from the locality have grown up to become policemen.
This is a promising trend, showing that where there is little else, there is still hope.
(Varun graduated from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, after working in Infosys.)