Page 68 - SHELTER

CASE STUDIES

HOUSING ASPIRATIONS OF RESETTLED

COMMUNITIES THROUGH A GENDER LENS

-An Analysis of Drawings by Women from Perumbakkam in Chennai, India

Are the urban poor involved in the INTRODUCTION
DR. ALONSO AYALA design of resettlement projects in
DR. SUNITHA DON India? A river restoration project Adequate housing is the
for
creating
foundation
BOSCO and disaster (flood) rehabilitation sustainable communities and
program will eventually lead to the
DR. MAARTJE VAN EERD displacement and resettlement of an human settlements. It enables
MR. C. VELAYUTHAM estimated 60,000 poor families or people to be productive, healthy
roughly 200,000 people living in the and contributes to have access
slums on river banks of the city of to education, which are all
In the workshop the Chennai in India (Whitcomb, 2020). fundamental preconditions
researchers wanted to The Perumbakkam resettlement for human development.
create an opportunity site is situated in the suburbs of The following five principles
determine housing adequacy:
for women from Chennai city, with an estimated availability, accessibility,
25,000 housing units. This project
Perumbakkam to is an example of a very large housing affordability, acceptability and
express their views project by TNSCB which led to adaptability. The achievement
and needs in housing, a concentration of urban poor in of these principles determines
and explore through one location. The Perumbakkam the success of housing policies
their drawings the resettlement project came under heavy and interventions such as
performance qualities of criticism for its failure to involve the resettlement sites. When these
their built environment. impacted communities especially principles guide a development
women in the design, development process which strives to fulfil
and implementation of the project. housing needs as a fundamental
This paper presents an analysis of a human right it leads to housing
participatory drawing exercise where justice (Ayala, van Eerd and
resettled women from Perumbakkam Geurts, 2019).
Key Words: Resettlement & were invited to draw their dream
Rehabilitation, gender lens, art-based homes. An analysis of these drawings Sustainable human settlements
research, dream house, Perumbakkam helped us to understand the housing are a dimension of housing
resettlement site. aspirations of poor resettled women. adequacy that can be analysed

Dr. Alonso Ayala (ayalaaleman@ihs.nl)& It is also a reminder to various by looking at their performance
Dr. Maartje van Eerd (vaneerd@ihs.nl) stakeholders of the importance qualities. For instance, a human
are Assistant Professors at IHS, Erasmus of community participation, and settlement performs well when
University, The Netherlands. particularly of women in the design, there is a synergy between the

Dr. Sunitha Don Bosco ( sunithadon@ planning and implementation of human-made and the natural
yahoo.com) & Mr. C. Velayutham ( resettlement projects. environment, when movement
cvtrainer@gmail.com)are Assistant systems are integrated (i.e. from
Professors at DMS, Anna University,
Chennai, India. pedestrian movement to public

66 HUDCO-HSMI Publication