CONSTRAINS IN THE ECONOMIC

OPPORTUNITIES OF SLUM INFORMAL

SECTOR:
A STUDY OF CHENNAI SLUMS
- 2190400113
SIVA SANKARI S
MURP
 Objectives
• To analyse how the informal slum economy contributes to the
urban economy

• To create a connectivity between slum economy to the urban

economy

• To analyse policy gaps, system failures and changes in the Top –

down approaches in slum redevelopment
 Need for the study
• Most of the urban growth figures like GDP, fail to reflect the full
extent to which slum economies contribute to the growth and
vitality of broader urban economies.
• Informal enterprises face numerous barriers that limit scale,
including unsupportive policies, and lack of access to finance,
markets, and skills.
• The Slum dwellers are engaged in informal wage employment at
formal and informal enterprises, and generally susceptible to low
wages, poor working conditions, and other forms of
exploitation.
 Need for the study
• Urban slum populations will continue to rely heavily on informal slum
economies for employment, as the formal sector will be increasingly
unable to provide sufficient opportunities.
• As slum growth outpaces government ability to expand the provision of
basic services, slum economies may also play a bigger role in filling this
gap. Increasingly insufficient access to basic services can restrict
slum dwellers’ economic productivity and perpetuate the likelihood
of health, economic and environmental crises, threatening slum and
urban resilience
• The lack of coherent policy on urban slum issues in India that
impacts the state’s intervention in the urbanization processes as well as
the policies related to marginalized populations living in cities
 Case Area description - Chennai

• The urban population of Chennai

grew from 2.64 million in 1971 to 4.68
million in 2011; the city boundary
expanded from 68 sq.km in 1901 to 426
sq.km in 2011

• Generally in India, most of the urban

poor are involved in the informal sector
activities in which there is constant
threat of eviction, removal,
confiscation of goods and almost
non-existent social security cover
• There are many slums in chennai which faces this problem especially
Nochikuppam, which is an urban slum situated at the end of the Marina
beach in Chennai, Tamilnadu, which houses more than a thousand
families, most of them belonging to fishing occupation. Fishermen living
along the Marina Loop road are going through hard times with the
authorities planning to demolish their homes and shift them to their new
homes in Perumbakkam, which is 20 kms from where they have been
living all this while. This is a classic example for the top –down
approach in slum redevelopment without considering the economic
base of their daily life. So instead of just changing physical
appearance, it is important for a planner to look into the economic
change in the slum development which is the root cause of this issue.
Preliminary Literature Research.

1. CONTRIBUTION OF THE URBAN POOR: EVIDENCE FROM CHENNAI, INDIA - Kala

Seetharam Sridhar and A.Venugopala Reddy*

 The paper discusses mainly about the role of urban poor in the urban economy’s structure
consisting of labour and manufacturing (enterprises in the economy).
 The paper also discusses about the contribution of the urban poor to savings and the investment
in their housing and other assets, and impacts on their remittances to the rural areas.

2. Decision Intelligence Document Constrained Opportunities in Slum Economies - Search

Cycle 2 November, 2013

 The paper discusses about Slum economies and its critical role in fulfilling slum dwellers’
livelihood and consumption needs, while also making important contributions to the growing
urban economies in developing countries.
 It discusses about the constrains and its root causes , system failures that are exacerbating the
problem, prevailing perspectives on this problem.
3. Shifting approaches to slums in Chennai: Political coalitions, policy discourses and practices - Tara
Saharan, Karin Pfeffer and Isa Baud.

 This paper discusses about an analysis of four enumeration reports and a look at the evolving political contexts
and subsequent practices of slum policy approaches in Chennai since the 1970s.