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CASE STUDIES

transport to private means from. consequences of displacement.
of transportation) allowing As the trend for resettlement They are also often impoverished
for physical accessibility is increasing, and increasingly much faster than men are
and proper mobility to going towards the fringe of urban (Terminsky, 2015, p. 442). They
access urban infrastructure areas, the negative impact is are disproportionately affected
and facilities. Access to likely to increase (van Eerd, 2016). in terms of access to employment
employment opportunities, In India, resettled communities (Koenig, 2014; Bisht, 2009; Sikka
convenience, equality of access from many different localities and Mathur, 2018; Coelho,
to urban services, safety and the are often moved into enormous Venkat and Chandrika, 2013).
understanding of open public apartment complexes, which Apart from losing a steady
space as the highest level of social often lead to social tensions. income, resettlement also has
infrastructure are also part of this These resettlement sites often intangible impacts on women.
notion of well-performing and lack adequate access to services, The entire rearrangement of their
sustainable human settlements employment, infrastructure and social, cultural and occupational
(CSIR, 2005). transportation and it negatively spaces results in increased
impacts social assets (Coelho, vulnerabilities, insecurity,
HOUSING ADEQUACY and loss of social and cultural
OF CURRENT 2016). These sites tend to re- cohesion (Bajpai and Gautam,
produce poverty, crime and the
RESETTLEMENT stigmatisation of vulnerable 2018).
PROJECTS groups (van Eerd, 2016). On An understudied aspect is the

Resettlement projects are often top of that, due to the fact that fact that when women have to
human settlement interventions inferior quality construction start commuting to work, they
which target poor communities, materials are often used, these are exposed to safety risks while
that often further deteriorates sites often quickly deteriorate. travelling, for example when bus
the living and livelihood The Perumbakkam resettlement stops are located in unsafe areas,
conditions of those resettled. site is a clear example of this. when they have to travel early
The solution thus becomes a in the morning or late at night
problem, sometimes bigger than THE GENDERED or have to travel on crowded
the one it intended to solve. This IMPACT OF buses. A few studies have been
situation has been researched RESETTLEMENT conducted showing that women

across the Global South for The impact of resettlement is not perceive that it is less safe in
years. According to de Wet homogeneous. With regards to resettlement sites due to design
(2009) resettlement results in gender, many researchers have and maintenance issues, the
serious and often permanent, already proven that women and presence of illegal activities and
socioeconomic and cultural children suffer more from it than increased domestic violence
impoverishment, and causes men. Unfortunately, despite all (Anand and Tiwari, 2006; Desai,
stress and trauma physically, this empirical evidence, most Parmar and Mahadevia, 2017;
economically, and socio- resettlement projects suffer from Msasi, 2018).
culturally. It also leads to what “gender-blindness” (Mehta,
Cernea (2000, 2008) famously 2011, p. 37). In many cases, INTRODUCTION TO
referred to as “impoverishment women are the first members PERUMBAKKAM
risks”. Overall it leads to a wide of the families adversely Perumbakkam is the largest
variety of negative impacts and affected by the socio-economic resettlement site in Asia with the
takes years for people to recover

October 2020 Volume 21 No. 2-SHELTER 67