Opportunists and Stragglers: The Story of a Small Fisher Village in a City of Millions

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Opportunists and Stragglers: The

Story of a Small Fisher Village in

a City of Millions

Exploring the socioeconomic development of a marginalised fisher

community in Chennai and its future perspectives using the

sustainable livelihoods approach

21 August 2015

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OPPORTUNISTS AND STRAGGLERS:

THE STORY OF A SMALL FISHER VILLAGE IN A CITY OF MILLIONS

Exploring the socioeconomic development of a marginalised fisher community

in Chennai and its future perspectives using the sustainable livelihoods

approach

Bachelor Thesis Human Geography

University of Amsterdam

Name student Katharina Vlaanderen

Student number 10194576

E-mail address katharinavlaanderen@gmail.com

Phone number +31 636399708

Supervisor Mr. L. De Klerk

Second reader Mr. J. V. Rothuizen

Date 21 August 2015

ABSTRACT

The community of UOT has developed from a homogenous single-profession, single-caste fisher settlement in the dunes near the Adyar River Estuary to a mixed community surrendered by wealthy neighbourhoods of Chennai. The living standard has improved over the decades, but it is still a very marginalised area. The sustainable livelihoods approach is applied to explore the livelihood strategies of the community, the livelihood of UOT is stressed by processes of natural degradation, land acquisition and opposition from the higher-middle class, but paradoxically land acquisition and the presence of the higher-middle class nearby provides the community also with economic capital. Furthermore the socioeconomic composition of the community is increasingly differentiated by the influx of working-immigrants and other outsiders. Fishermen benefit because they have exclusive access to property and are involved in renting and land business practices. However, not all members of the community seem to be able to access such livelihood strategies, and there seems to be a trend of polarisation in the fishermen community between ‘opportunists’ and ‘stragglers’.

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Preface

In order to complete my Bachelor of Science Future Planet Studies joined with a major in human geography at the University of Amsterdam, I had the opportunity to conduct a small research in Chennai, India. After my arrival in Chennai I firstly took part in the two week course ‘Coastal Zone Management - Taking Account of Disasters and Ecosystem Services’, a collaboration between the University of Amsterdam and the Anna University of Chennai. The introductory course of two weeks was followed by four weeks of fieldwork, during which I became familiar with my research area and its community and collected the data needed to answer my research questions. The entire research took place from 30 March 2015 to 8 May 2015.

This has been my first visit to India, and meeting all kinds of Indian people who were always prepared to help me, finding myself in situations I could never have imagined before, and observing such a different way of life has been the most interesting life-experience I have had so far. Therefore I would like to thank Dr Maarten Bavinck for his great efforts to make this Dutch-Indian collaboration possible every year, and not to mention for sharing his extensive knowledge of India, and particularly of the coastal areas Tamil Nadu.

Furthermore I would like to thank Mrs Dhanalakshmi from the Anna University for her kindness and commitment to make sure we were provided with all our needs.

I would especially like to thank Jaap Rothuizen en Leo de Klerk for their personal guidance throughout my thesis writing process. At times when I got lost and felt discouraged, their commitment and understanding helped me back on track. Without their mind-clearing and insightful advices, I would probably still be writing.

I could not have conducted the research without the help of my translator and friend Tarun. His company made the fieldwork days very pleasant and I am thankful for his commitment to the research and his preparedness to answer all my curious questions about Indian society.

I am grateful to Nityanand Jayaraman, K. Saravanan, Pooja Kumar and all others from Coastal Action Network for providing me with lots of useful information and for their great hospitality by allowing me to work in their little office in Urur-Olcott Kuppam.

Finally, I would like to thank all others who have taken the time to help me with my research and special thanks to the people of Urur-Olcott Kuppam and Tiruvalluvar Nagar, who were of great inspiration to me.

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List of abbreviations

COC: Corporation of Chennai CRZ: Coastal Regulation Zone CRZA: Coastal Regulation Zone Act

MoEF: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change SLA: Sustainable livelihoods approach

TN: Tamil Nadu

TNSCB: Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board

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Introduction

India is developing with a fast and determined pace. Modi’s government has great ambitions to make India into an economic super power and is eager to create a comfortable foreign investment climate. Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu is one of India’s largest cities and connected to the global market through its important manufacturing industries and IT sector (CDP, 2006). According to the latest census, Chennai City comprises a population of 4.7 million people and the total Chennai Metropolitan Area a population of 8.7 million people (India Census, 2011). As with the rest of India, Chennai too has shown substantial growth in its population, rising 7.7 percent between 2001 and 2011 (Census of India, 2011). The southern state of Tamil Nadu is one of the wealthiest states of India, and many migrants leave their village behind to settle in its capital city.

Long before Chennai became a contemporary mega city, fishermen settled south of the Adyar River estuary. This settlement is today known as Urur-Olcott Kuppam. In previous times the fisher village was surrounded by pristine dunes, small lakes and the river estuary, now it has become part of the city of Chennai enclosed between the sea, the stone walls of the Theosophical Society, the wealthy residential neighbourhood of Besant Nagar and the popular Elliot’s Beach with its shopkeepers, promenade, and restaurants. Despite being centrally located Urur-Olcott Kuppam is not very well known among ‘Chennaites’, in the contrary to Besant Nagar, lovingly called ‘Bessie’. Urur-Olcott Kuppam has significantly poorer quality of housing and infrastructure than Besant Nagar, and fisher communities with their ‘artesian’ way of life, are frequently stigmatised as being underdeveloped. More people than ever before live in urban areas, and cities take an increasingly important role as international hubs of business activity, cultural value, human capital, and information exchange. Since India has opened up its markets, the important cities are also developing towards global cities, and a large middle-class has risen up. But who thinks of Indian cities, does not only think of rapid economic development; social inequality is also increasing and slums are growing. So what do these rapid developments mean for the marginalised communities of a dynamic global south city like Chennai?

This unusual combination of a long-standing fisher settlement located in the heart of a megacity, provides an interesting subject of research. The area is prone to change, set in motion by actors of both planned and unplanned urban development. Many drivers of urban development lay a claim on the livelihood of the fishermen community. The real estate prices in Besant Nagar are high, the government has attempted to relocate inhabitants of Urur-Olcott Kuppam several times for the sake of urban planning projects, and working migrants have settled in Urur-Olcott Kuppam. Furthermore, the new urban elite want to recreate at clean and beautiful beaches; preferably without the occupancy of the fishermen (Megabricks, 2014; Coelho & Raman, 2013; Kumar, Saravanan & Jayaraman, 2014).

It is clear that the livelihood of people of Urur-Olcott Kuppam has changed in many ways during the past decades. The sustainable livelihoods approach provides as a solid framework for assessing the resilience and perspectives of the community. As a student in human geography I am interested in understanding how ‘people’ are influenced by their ‘surroundings’, and vice versa. Arising from this point of view, the following questions need to be asked regarding the case of Urur-Olcott Kuppam:

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2 (1) How has the livelihood of the UOT-community developed over the past decades and how does it relate to the surrounding city? (2) What is the socioeconomic status of the UOT-community and how has it developed over the past decades? And (3) how does the socioeconomic development and different livelihood strategies vary across the community members?

In this thesis report I will conclusively seek to answer the following main research question: 'How has

the livelihood and socioeconomic status of the UOT-community developed in the past decades, and how does the urbanisation of the livelihood of the UOT-community influence their socioeconomic resilience?'

The outline of the report is as follows. The first section (Ch. 1) provides a framework to understand the sustainable livelihoods approach related to the urban poor in India. This is followed by an explanation of the research methodology and limitations (Ch. 2). In the main body first the livelihood of the UOT-community and its development will be assessed (Ch. 3), and subsequently the social landscape and the socioeconomic development of the community (Ch. 3), followed by the socioeconomic variations and livelihood strategies within the community (Ch. 4). Finally I will answer the main research question and I will discuss how this case relates to the existing body of urban poverty literature in India.

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1 Framing the case: applying the sustainable livelihoods

approach to the context of the urban poor in India

To put it rather bluntly, the aim of this research is to explore the socioeconomic impact of urban interferences in the livelihood of marginalised communities such as the Urur-Olcott-Tiruvalluvar community, and subsequently trying to identify how the community deals with these interference. In order to understand what these ‘urban interferences’ are, and what their impact on the community may be, a distinctive contextual framework is needed that on the one hand provides an insight in urban development and urban poverty in India and on the other hand provides an insight in the livelihood-dependency and coping strategies of the urban poor.

1.1 Urban development in India

An important theme in the urban poverty literature is the threat of displacement and dispossession of the marginalised people in the city, be it through gentrification and informal land acquisition or through state-led land grabs (Shatkin, 2007). Also, institutional, political and social discrimination increase the inequality in cities (Doshi, 2015).

In the literature on urban poverty in India four prevalent ‘drivers’ of urban development can be distinguished: (1) The elite/bourgeois/new middle-class imaginary of the green, beautiful and slum free cities (Coelho & Raman, 2015; Arabindoo, 2011; Doshi, 2015), (2) developmentalist ambitions of the government to meet global city standards (Coelho & Raman, 2015; Shatkin, 2007), (3) the neoliberal corporate agenda and (4) the informal regimes of land development, settlement and governance (Bhan, 2013; Roy, 2009). Those drivers of urban development are possible threats to the space of marginalised communities such as UOT as they contest their livelihood space.

However, although these distinguished trends give impressions of clear distinguishing between drivers of urban development, some authors such as Van Dijk (2011) claim that the emphasis should not be on categorising cities into ‘world-class’ or ‘bourgeois’ as its to simplified to assume that cities are 'things’ that can be entirely socio-organisational shaped. She thinks it is analytically important to investigate what forms of social processes underpin the different spatio-temporal forms and related uneven development within cities.

1.2 Applying the sustainable livelihoods approach

In this research it is assumed that the socioeconomic development and the perspectives of development of the community are imbedded in the socio-spatial context of their livelihood. In other words, It is assumed that there is a relationship between de socioeconomic development of the community and its environment. A useful theory in this context is the sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA), which is developed to frame the livelihood of the poor and its strategies on household level to cope with stresses, originally focussing on rural communities coping with environmental stresses. The underlying thought is that differentiation of assets to capital, improves the resilience of communities against those stresses. The vulnerability of a community is determined by the level of risk, threats, and stress it is exposed to (Serrat, 2008). In his publication on trends in

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4 poverty and livelihoods in coastal fishing communities of the Indian state Orissa, Salagrama (2006) defined SLA in a very coherent, yet comprehensive manner:

“In its simplest form, the framework views people as operating in a context of vulnerability. Within this context, they have access to certain assets or poverty reducing factors. These gain their meaning and value through the prevailing social, organizational environment. This environment also influences the livelihood strategies - ways of combining and using assets that are open to people in pursuit of beneficial livelihood outcomes to meet their own livelihood objectives.” (Salagrama, 2006)

The livelihoods framework (figure 2) recognises five main asset categories, comprising (1) physical capital, sometimes also called produced capital or economic capital; (2) natural capital such as land, trees, and fish stocks; (3) human capital, such as people, education and health; (4) financial capital like savings, and credit; and (5) social capital like kinship networks and associations. (Allison & Ellis, 2001). The capital assets of a household shape the livelihood strategies the household can deploy, and the extend of improvement of their quality of life.

The sustainable livelihood approach is mostly used in a rural context, but in this research the community lives in a very urban setting. This means that the environmental stresses are not just environmental stresses, but also urban stresses; the ‘vulnerability context’ as depicted in the figure below, in this case, is an urban context with stresses caused by processes of urban development that are largely regulated by policies and institutions (see figure 2).

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2 Methodology and limitations

2.1 Research design

The research can be classified as a case study, as I have researched a single community residing in a concentrated area in Chennai, and have tried to understand how this specific community is impacted by changes of their urban environment. The particular case has not been compared with another case, but an comparative approach is used in the analysis by comparing characteristics of the community and its neighbouring community, be it only in a superficial manner.

2.2 The research location

My aim was to conduct a research focussed on a small fisher community in an urban setting. These considerations were based on the short amount of time for fieldwork, wanting to research a community which I assumed would be strongly depended on its livelihood and finally, an urban setting would be an interesting contrast to the locale of a traditional fishermen community. As someone who had never visited India before, I was not well-informed on the nature of the different localities within Chennai. In order to find a relevant site which would meet the requirements I spoke to several key informants on urban poverty and coastal communities in Chennai (see appendix A). Urur-Olcott Kuppam was a likely choice, because several contacts of Coastal Action Network were already doing projects in the area and could provide me with useful information and a work space in their office.

The research area and its three adjacent little neighbourhoods Urur Kuppam, Olcott Kuppam and part of Tiruvalluvar Nagar (UOT) are marked in figure 3. The area is situated south of the Adyar River estuary, enclosed between the Bay of Bengal, the stone walls of the Theosophical Society, the wealthy neighbourhood of Besant Nagar and the touristy Elliot’s Beach. The settlement was previously known as Urur Kuppam (kuppam referring to ‘fisher village’). However, begin 1980s the fisher village Urur Kuppam split up after a fight dividing the village by a straight border from east to west into Urur and Olcott Kuppam. Unfortunately no clear explanation for the split-up could be found during the research, but from conversations with the residents it did become clear that there are no signs of any hostile attitudes or conflicts between the two neighbourhoods at the moment. Despite the split-up he former fisher village is generally considered as a single neighbourhood, fisher village, or slum, and referred to as Urur-Olcott Kuppam.

A third neighbourhood that is partly located within the research area - but also covers a larger part outside of the research area - is Tiruvalluvar Nagar (nagar simply meaning neighbourhood). Tiruvalluvar Nagar has less of a ‘fisher village vibe’ with its many three-story apartments, and being positioned closer to Besant Nagar and Elliot’s Beach than Urur and Olcott. It can be disputed whether part of Tiruvalluvar Nagar should be included in the research area or not. I chose to do so, because the setting of Tiruvalluvar at the beach side is very similar to Urur-Olcott Kuppam.

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6 Figure 3 The research area UOT marked with red and the different neighbourhoods marked in yellow.

Source: Source: Google Earth (2015)

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2.3 UOT population

The research area is relatively small, but densely populated. No census data is available for UOT specifically, so unfortunately the exact size of the population is unknown. An online newspaper article from the Deccan Chronicle stated that Urur-Olcott Kuppam has 2000 residents, but this is a rough estimate which also excludes the fragment of Tiruvalluvar Nagar, and likely does not include immigrant groups (Deccan Chronicle, 2014). Another indication is the following number provided by a prominent member of community who stated there are 305 families in Urur and 280 in Olcott, multiplying this by the average household size of five, provides a total of 2925 persons. Thus, the population size of the whole research area is likely to be much more than 2000, an reasonable estimate would be around 3500 persons, including the immigrants and part of Tiruvalluvar Nagar.

Thirty respondents from UOT have been surveyed, all above the age of eighteen, and both males as females. The average age of the respondents is 40 years, which is not representative for the average age of the population, as I mostly spoke to the ‘head’ of the household, usually an older person. In table 2 the average age of the children of the household, provided by the respondents, has also been added, showing that the average age of ‘children’ is relatively old, as they have already reached maturity. The fertility rate of 2.0 is slightly above Tamil Nadu’s average fertility rate of 1.7 (Census Commission India, 2013).

The average household consists of five persons, although a four-person household is most common. The majority of couples have two children. In Indian culture traditionally the son and his wife stay with the son’s parents, and that the daughter moves to the house of her husband when getting married, but many alternative household compositions have been observed during the research. Also, some houses are inhabited by the families of several siblings, which can create households of up to 12 persons. In table 2 the general characteristics of the community are presented. The majority of people in UOT are Hindu, and a few Christians and Muslims are also present (table 1)

Survey data on households in UOT Average Mode Median Age of respondents (N=30) 40 years 20 years 40 years

Household size (N=30) 5.0 persons 4 persons 4 persons

Number of children per household (N=30) 2.0 children

2 children 2 children

Age of children of respondents (N=62) 18 years 20 years 18 years Table 2 General characteristics of UOT-community.

86%

7% 7%

Religion (N=29

)

Hindu Muslim Christian

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2.4 Research methods, sampling and operationalisation

During the research I combined qualitative and quantitative methods using an ethnographic approach to collect the data. The quantitative method used is the survey and qualitative methods that have been used are observations and semi-structured interviews with key persons, such as community leaders, NGOs, head of the fishermen association of Urur, and experts on the development of UOT. The interviews are listed in appendix A. Also, an extensive body of literature is available on the fishermen communities and coastal areas of Chennai, which proved to be useful for my analysis.

All possible information was observed and absorbed my me, trying to overcome the major culture and general knowledge gaps. This means that every time I accessed new information, this led to new considerations for further research, in an almost intuitive way. During the field work period this gradually stabilised, making way for a more focussed way of working.

The survey respondents have been selected by indicating the households on a printed map and trying to find an equal balance between Urur, Olcott and Tiruvalluvar. The selection was intended to be random and spread throughout the area, but my translator and I approached people who were at home during the day and were easily accessible. Often the person would be sitting at their doorstep. People who live in an apartment on the second or third floor, or people who are never sitting around due to a busy schedule were difficult to approach this way. It seems that the simpler the house was, the easier approachable the respondents where. This means there is a skewed balance in the survey sample in regards to the socioeconomic composition of the community, as it is likely that those who live in poorer housing conditions were surveyed relatively more.

In the questionnaire and during the interviews I have tried to address several themes, such as the person’s perspective on development of the neighbourhood and main concerns for the community, which would help me to identify the problems the community faces. Also I wanted to know the level of attachment of the person to the community, which is operationalised by the willingness to move, the appreciation of the neighbourhood, being born in the community and being a ’fisher folk’, the dominant group of the community. The level of attachment is important for determining the dependency of the respondent on its livelihood. Side note to this, the appreciation of the neighbourhood did not show any relation to housing quality, or being part of the ‘indigenous’ fisher community or not, which shows that the question is weak and should have been coupled with similar questions, to operationalise into one variable of valuation. That said, it could also be that people living in a small hut or not being part of the fishermen community can still experience living in UOT positively.

2.5 Social research criteria: reliability and validity

Reliability

The general idea of explaining the methodology - making the research repeatable for other scientists to improve its reliability - is somewhat flawed in regards to social research - and especially in regards to a largely qualitative research approach as I have used (Bryman, 2008). As with any qualitative research involving methods such as semi-structured interviews and participatory observations, which are suspect to the researchers personal interpretation, the applied methods are impossible to repeat

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9 exactly. However, the quantitative survey data and list of interviewees with topics of relevance have been carefully documented and added to the appendix, thus making it possible to set out a similar research.

When the research is the ‘instrument of measurement’, the researcher has to interpret and process data, which is subjective to the researchers own background and beliefs. Especially when a major cultural gap comes in stake, as it was the case, the reliability of the interpretations of the researcher are weakened by the researcher’s perspectives. On the other hand, being a total outsider is also beneficial, because some social structures are observed clearer, as the researcher has not been biased by familiarisation with to the observed environment.

Validity

Given the short time of preparation, and sometimes chaotic circumstances during the research, my translator and I often had to improvise and a structured way of working proved to be difficult, which has weakened the internal validity of the research. Also the small size of the survey and non-randomised selection of respondents, are a problem for the degree to which the findings can be generalised to a greater extend.

2.6 Limitations

Several limitations were faced during the research. First of all, the four week time-span was much too short to get into important findings which were encountered later on during the fieldwork, and to fill up data gaps. Unfortunately the first week I did not have a translator yet, which limited my research even more. If the fieldwork period would have been longer, the survey sample could also be expanded, which would provide a more valid source of data.

I sought to describe the case of UOT as nuanced as possible, and I tried to ‘collect’ the issues the community members itself pointed out, before I would make my own assumptions. This however, appeared to be a big task as many different trends and processes are present in the community that all seemed relevant to investigate further.

Both my translator and I came from a different background as the members of the community. Obviously I am not Indian, and my translator is a modern looking young man of a much higher class than the community members, which they must have been aware of. This could have influenced how people approached us, and what things they decided to answer. Socially desirable answers are always a problem in social research, but when this also involves a cultural gap it becomes even more difficult to deal with this, as it is difficult to understand as an outsider if an answer is truthful or not. Also, misconceptions about the provided question between me and the respondent are a danger. At some instances with underprivileged respondents, it seemed that they considered us benefactors and scanned for opportunities of getting benefits out of the conversation, resulting in more pitiful answers to our questions and asking for financial support. In other occasions respondents might have given a more positive impression of their situation towards my translator and I out of pride.

The largest constraint to the research was the language gap, as many people only spoke Tamil. My translator mostly interpreted the information, and subsequently provided me with a concise

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10 translation. Therefore the information was not only subjective to my own interpretation, but also to my translator’s interpretation, as he had to decide what to tell, and how to tell it.

3 Setting the scene

3.1 Living area description and development

Figures 5 and 6 Entering the research area through Tiruvalluvar Nagar (Vlaanderen, 2015)

If one walks into Tiruvalluvar, Olcott and Urur from Elliot’s beach, it is immediately noticeable that the area looks entirely different from the rest of Besant Nagar with its spacious houses and wide leafy avenues. The roads are narrow and bear many holes, the houses are smaller and packed together, but they still look colourful and quite charming. Apart from a few rickshaws, bikes and bicycles, almost no other vehicles are present on the streets of Urur, Olcott and Tiruvalluvar, which creates a tranquil setting in which children can play freely. In the heart you can find a small fish market where a handful of older women sell their fish, and a dozen other typically Indian little counter shops are spread throughout the neighbourhood.

Despite the area often being referred to as a slum, most of the houses are nothing like the improvised and cluttered little huts that are expected to be found in a slum. In fact, a substantial part of the area consists of three-story concrete buildings with a proper layout and single family houses of considerable size. As mentioned before, UOT is located in a very central and popular area of Chennai, which naturally draws the interest of real estate developers. One of the key informants told us the story about the large apartment block we were facing across the street. About 20 years ago when one of the community leaders passed away, a large plot of empty land had been sold to real estate

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11 developers who built an enormous gated

apartment complex with parking facilities to serve the higher middle class. Currently three such apartment complexes are present in UOT, all located in the west part. A brief investigation on housing websites shows that these apartments are available for Rs. 20.000 a month (approximately 270 euros), a very large amount given that the average per capita monthly income in Tamil Nadu is Rs. 10.697 (Housing.com, 2015). Not much empty space appears to be left to realise more of these projects in the future, although the ways of land appropriation are quite unpredictable as Roy (2009) point out: ‘Urban

planning in India has to be understood as the management of resources, particularly land, trough dynamic processes of informality’. With

‘informality’ Roy means the state of regulation where ownership, use, and purpose of land cannot be fixed and mapped according to any prescribed set of regulations or the law. Some community members will have gained capital from selling the land, and some might benefit in

the future, but it is not clearly set out who these members are, although it is likely they are powerful members in the community who have control over land.

The picture in figure 7 has been taken right at the border of the research area in Tiruvalluvar Nagar. In this case the real estate developer bought a plot and broke the existing building down to realise these luxury apartments. More modest three story rental apartments apartment are also spread throughout the village, although mainly present in the Tiruvalluvar Nagar and the western part of the research area. Whereas the ‘luxurious’ houses are especially present in the southwest and west part of the area, the closer towards the beach, the poorer the condition of the houses gets. At the beachside the housing quality is significantly poor, as many of the houses are primitive thatched huts, and the open sewage and heaps of waste on the beach degrade the quality of the beachside area tremendously. Historically, the fisher communities settled in the dunes further away from the sea, which provided a protection against dangers from the sea such as tsunamis and other natural hazards (Kumar et al., 2014). But UOT has been built up close towards the beach during decades of population growth and the development of the city of Chennai. The 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean did not spare Chennai, and many houses of UOT were severely damaged. Some of the respondents stated they are afraid of the water and would rather live further away from the sea, particularly those who were not part of the fisher community. Other respondents who lived at the beachside remarked that the water floods into the houses during rainy season. The beach side is the least developed area of the neighbourhoods, as it is the least clean, comfortable and safe area to live. Yet, many others pointed out the advantages of fresh air and a breeze, which is much sought

Figure 7 High end apartments under construction in Tiruvalluvar Nagar. Caption: ‘Ambience is traditional. Lifestyle is contemporary. Inspiration is you.’ (Vlaanderen, 2015).

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12 after in the scorching heat of Chennai, and fishermen and their families underlined the importance of the beach to carry out their profession.

The housing quality of the area is developing gradually. People are renovating and upgrading their houses when they can, and most people have electricity and a television. In the survey we asked respondents about the things that should be improved in the neighbourhood, and many answered that they would like all huts to be turned into concrete houses. A young father who moved to the beachside area of Urur Kuppam five years ago told us: “When I moved here, it was all huts, now

everything is concrete”. In figure 8 a trend of transformation from the traditional thatched huts to

concrete buildings is clearly visible. The brown small rectangular shapes with shadows from the gabled roofs are thatched huts made of palm leaves, and the square sized and white and grey shapes are basic concrete houses. The satellite images shows that in 2003 almost all houses at the beachside area were thatched huts, whereas the image of 2014 shows that the majority of houses are built in concrete.

Figure 8 Housing development at eastside of UOT-area in (left to right) 2003, 2010 and 2014. Source: Google Earth (2015)

Issue of improvement Times mentioned during survey (N=30) Cleanliness of the area 9

Roads, especially at beach side 8

Drainage and sewage 7

Drinking water availability 4 Education of the community 2

School closer by 2

Public toilets 2

Street lights, prohibiting of illegal housing practices, security guards, bus stop closer by, shops closer by, children’s playground

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13 Figure 9 The ‘road’ towards the broken bridge, open sewage and waste accumulation on beachside of UOT (Vlaanderen, 2015).

Still many urgent problems affect UOT. All survey answers to the question ‘what should be improved

in the neighbourhood?’ are presented in table 3, and show that the infrastructure and facilities of the

neighbourhood are considered very poor. Many wish to see a proper road being built and the beach side and the waste to be removed by the COC. Also the open sewage, drainage, and drinking water availability are great concerns. A clean water line has been set up, but is not put into use yet. Public toilets have been built, but are almost all out of order due to being clogged and dirty. There is many room for improvement of the living quality of UOT, and despite some positive developments, it still is a very marginalised area.

3.2 Surrounding areas of UOT

The beachside within the boundaries of the community is the workplace of the fishermen and important part of their livelihood. They use the beach for storage of their boats and nets, to dry fish, to rest while they wait for the next catch, and to meet-up underneath the thatched roof constructions that protect against the sun. This sounds rather romanticised, but unfortunately the beach is also full of waste, and empty liquor bottles are easy to find. It has to be recognised however, that the beach is crucial for the fishermen to carry out their profession, and even to a larger scope, to maintain their way of life.

Both northerly and southerly of the research area the beach is very different, at the north side the land is empty, except for turtle hatcheries of the protected Olive Ridley Turtle and a few tourists walking towards the broken bridge that once still intact stretched over the Adyar River estuary. Southward one can find the popular Elliot’s Beach. The boulevard is terribly hot and empty during the day, but in evening time it is crowded with families, groups of friends and young couples. Many people from the fisher communities Urur-Olcott Kuppam and Odai Kuppam, which is a fisher

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14 settlement southerly of the beach, own little vendor stalls to sell prepared food or other merchandise.

Urur-Olcott Kuppam and Tiruvalluvar Nagar are located in one of the most popular and posh neighbourhoods of Chennai: Besant Nagar. The neighbourhood offers a great range of boutiques, fast food restaurants and coffee bars, especially at Elliot’s Beach promenade. Besant Nagar in Chennai is pleasantly located at the beach and has much less traffic and subsequently much less nuisance of traffic congestion as the rest of central Chennai. The street grid of Besant Nagar has been properly planned and the lanes are wide and leafy. The presence of large institutional buildings and territories results in a relatively low population density.

Figure 10 People recreating at Elliot’s beach after sunset. (Vlaanderen, 2015)

3.3 Sub-conclusion: assessing the living area development

The research area is ‘surrendered’ by different kinds of land occupancies that differ greatly from UOT itself. UOT is much less developed than its adjacent neighbourhood Besant Nagar, which is a popular neighbourhood for the higher middleclass. The dirty fishermen beach full of boats and nets is one step away from the more or less pristine turtle beach at the north side, and the crowded Elliot’s beach southward of UOT (see figure 10)

UOT does not only differ with its surrounding areas, also within the ‘territory’ of UOT, the quality of the living area differs. The beach stretch has the worst living-conditions, because of the pollution, open sewage, and being most vulnerable to natural disasters, whereas more land inwards the housing quality and living area gradually improves. Especially in Tiruvalluvar Nagar, the apartments and single-family homes have substantial size and comfort.

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15 Overall, the living quality of the area has improved over the years, but still there is many room for improvement of the living quality of UOT. UOT it is still a marginalised area, although it cannot be labelled as a slum either. The large contrast between UOT and its surrendering areas is remarkable, and the presence of this large elite population close by can have both benefits, such as job opportunities, and drawbacks, such as discrimination, for the community of UOT. Also, given the interest of the real estate sector, more land might be sold in the future to generate higher middleclass apartments. However this remains speculative and difficult to predict. In the following chapter I will elaborate further on this by going into the social landscape of the community.

4 The social landscape of the Urur-Olcott-Tiruvalluvar

community

“After a morning of research I was having a coffee at Elliot’s Beach’ Costa Coffee with my translator Tarun: DJ, copy writer, ‘party lover’; basically he could’ve been living in London or Amsterdam and have the same life he lives in Chennai, minus the scorching heat. He planned to meet with one of his friends at the cafe and I was still present when a tall, very modern girl walked in. He introduced me and explained the research we were doing; that we’d been doing interviews with people of the fisher neighbourhood just across the beach. She replied in a perplexed tone: “Oh my god! You guys go into that slum?!”

(Personal fragment, 7 May 2015, Chennai)

Table 4 Education of persons above the age of 30. Table 5 Education of persons between 18 and 30 years old.

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16

4.1 Development of Urur-Olcott Kuppam and Tiruvalluvar Nagar

The research area has been a fisher settlement since centuries, and still a great share of the community consists of fisher folk. Those who do not work in the fishing sector have low wage service jobs such as security guard, carpenter, and rickshaw driver. Many older females work as housekeeper for families of Besant Nagar. Fisher communities in Indian society are generally perceived as backward communities, they are certainly not part of the lowest Dalit caste, but they are considered of low caste (Interview Peter, 2015). Fishermen are often stereotyped as heavy drinkers and brawlers, and considered poor and uneducated. On the other hand, fisher communities have a strong community sense accompanied with many self-governing systems, and skilled knowledge that is required to carry out their profession (Bavinck, 2001).

In the past decades the UOT community has developed on several fields, the living standards have improved as pointed out in the previous chapter, and the community is getting more educated (see tables 4 and 5). The majority of educated respondents (20 out of 24) has been enrolled in government schools. Government schools are typically free of cost and provide the children with a uniform and a meal. Government schools are generally not recognised as quality educational institutions and people who can afford to send their children to private schools will do so, as the infrastructure and curriculum of government schools is generally poor and inadequate (Gouda et al. 2013).

Despite most of the children still going to government schools, the education level of the younger generations has significantly improved as shown when both figures are compared. Many continue to get a higher education degree after secondary (government) school, and the percentage of educated persons has declined from 23 to 7 percent. It is interesting to remark that almost all non-educated persons from the elder generations are females, whereas in the younger generation both males and females are well-educated. This is in line with the opinions that many respondents underlined the importance of education of males as well as females, also the school project in UOT from the NGO Pudiyador who is a key informant in monitoring the development of the youth has pointed this out. Daughters now first have to be educated before they marry, thus marry at older age.

Fishing is an important source of income for UOT where the predominant profession is fishing. Unfortunately, the perspective of fishing in general has developed in a negative way over decades and their small-scale way of fishing has never provided a very reliable and prosperous income. In UOT small fibre boats are used for artisanal fishing, which has to compete with the large trawlers further off-shore. Environmental pollution, and a decline in fish stocks are threats to the fish catch and during interviews with members of the fisher community it became clear that they did not see a bright future of artisanal fishing. This was also reflected in the trend of education, as parents want their children to seek for job opportunities outside of the fishing sector.

4.2 A community of fishermen and low-wage workers

As pointed out earlier, the community mainly consists of people with low-wage service jobs, if they are not involved in fishing, they have low-wage jobs such as taxi or rickshaw driver, security guard, and housekeeper. The income of the respondents appeared to be a really unreliable indicator of wealth, as especially fishermen did not know how much they earned a month, and their income

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17 varied from day to day. The monthly per capita incomes that could be provided (19 out of 30 respondents) vary between Rs. 840 for a 31 hour work week as a home cook to Rs. 80.000 rupees as a full-time in service Merchant officer. The average income of the respondents is Rs. 11.781 (N=19), however when leaving out the single exceptional high income of 80.000, this provides a much lower average of Rs. 7991 (N=18), which might be more representative for the community. In the following chapter I will address to other indicators of socioeconomic class, namely the determined housing-standard and relevant side-activities.

4.3 Community-based governance structures

The community of UOT is organised following several traditional community-based governance structures. The males who are born in the village can become member of the village, this has also been observed and described by Bavinck (2014) who observed fishermen governance structures along the Coromandel Coast. According to him, the community leaders can decide who will be allowed to become member of the village and who is allowed to use the community resources and facilities. By becoming member of Urur, Olcott or Tiruvalluvar they can become part of the fishermen association, which allows them to use boats and nets from the association. Fisher woman can also become member of a fisherwoman corporative, and they will receive a widow’s pension if their husband passes away. We spoke to the head of the Urur fishermen, who is also representative of the fishermen in regards to government issues. He explained that the requirements for becoming a member are to provide a transcript of proof that they have finished school, pay Rs. 100, and apply to a bank account. According to him parents apply their children so they can go into fishing, and everyone who fishes has a membership. Fishermen can take part in two government allowance schemes. A 45-day fishing ban period is active from half April onwards, which leaves the fishermen with no income for 45 days . During 9 months the fishermen have to pay Rs. 100 to the Central State Bank, and they will receive Rs. 2700 in return. Another extra Rs. 2000 is given for compensation during the ban to all fishermen in Tamil Nadu.

Urur Kuppam, Olcott Kuppam and Tiruvalluvar Nagar all have their own traditional village administration ruled by the panchayat, an assembly of respectable man, chosen by the village members. Also, a ‘government panchayat’ is active in all three neighbourhoods, these men are appointed by the government. During the research we had a conversation with several panchayat members of the traditional panchayat of Urur and it became clear that the power of the panchayat is much less compared to previous times and has merely become obsolete. But despite that the power of the panchayat is declining, the fisher community is still organised in many ways.

4.4 Sub-conclusion: fishermen strength

Fisher communities are generally perceived as back warded, poor and uneducated. Fishing is not a profession that assures a wealthy and comfortable life, and the future of fishing is perceived negative among the community members. Education, however, has become very important for the community and the youngest generation is much more educated than the elder generations. The strength of fisher communities lies in its ability to mobilise and organise many different governmental structures, which creates a strong cohesion. Fisher villages differ from ‘normal’ urban poor neighbourhood because of these community-based governance structures. Also, fisher

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18 communities have a stronger claim on their livelihood because they have historically lived on their lands for ages and because they need their livelihood to maintain their traditional way of life.

5 Socioeconomic differentiation of the community

5.1 The ‘infiltration’ of outsiders in the UOT -community

Commonly, the communities of fisher villages along the Tamil Nadu coast are single-caste, being all part of the Pattinavar fisher caste (Bavinck, 2001). But the community of UOT is not the homogenous fisher community anymore that it used to be. From the survey respondents only 60 percent belongs to fishermen families. Non-fisher folk people mostly consists of families who moved from other neighbourhoods of Chennai to UOT, and a substantial population of North-Indian working immigrants is also present. Tamil Nadu is one of the most prosperous states of India, which attracts economically driven immigrants from all over India, and especially from Northern states. India’s people are immensely diverse, and these Northern Indians stand out against the Tamils so much by their different appearance and language, that they even could be identified by an outsider like me. The following fragment illustrates the course of immigration nicely:

“Tamil Nadu has a fairly large interstate migrant population, estimated to be over ten lakhs*, with large concentrations around Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai, Hosur, Tirupur, Kanyakumari and Tirunelvelli. Hailing from Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and even Nepal, these men come to work on private and government construction sites, in small engineering ancillary units, steel rolling mills, lathe, hosieries, foundries, in roadside eateries as well as fancy city restaurants, as security guards and even as farmhands. While walking past a slum or even a fishing kuppam these days, one can catch a soft snatch of conversation or song in Bhojpuri, Hindi, Bangla or Oriya.”

* one lakh is 100.000

Fragment from ‘Come south young man, but here be dragons’. Source: The Hindu (March, 9, 2012) During the fieldwork only one working- immigrant from North India has been interviewed, but many of such ‘bachelor groups’ have been observed, gathering around and smoking cigarettes together, while sometimes wearing uniform working clothing. My translator and I even walked through an alley which we jokingly called ‘bachelor paradise’ as all houses seemed to be occupied by groups of young men. Except for bachelor groups, female immigrants and immigrant families are also present in UOT. Unfortunately it was difficult to approach these groups due to language barriers and many of them being away during the day. Table 6 is therefore slightly misleading as the share of immigrants to the population number is likely to be higher.

The background of the 20 year old immigrant we interviewed is illustrative for the so-called ‘bachelor groups’. He moved to Urur Kuppam a year ago together with five friends from the same village. They are all farmer sons and work as security guards in one of Chennai’s IT parks, which is a 15 minute bicycle trip away. Their basic concrete houseis rented out by a fisherman for Rs. 3.500 a month. The young men work 8-12 hours a day and make Rs. 10.000 a month, subsequently they send the main part home. To the question “do you want to stay here?”, the respondent replied that he wants to move back to his home village after about ten years. Furthermore he seemed comfortable to live in

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19 54% 30% 13% 3%

Place of birth (N=30)

UOT Chennai Tamil Nadu Other

Urur Kuppam, and did not have any suggestions for improvement of the neighbourhood. The main reason for them to stay in Urur is to live close to their work, and other living conditions seem rather unimportant.

5.3 Identifying

different

socioeconomic groups

During the fieldwork it became apparent that the range of wealth varies greatly among the members of the community. In order to determine the economic welfare of the respondent, several indicators have to be combined: the profession of the respondent and relevant side-activities, the per capita income, and a valuation of the housing standard. ‘Side-activities’ of the respondents were inquired, to see if they have a second source of income, and to see what communal functions they (had) occupied.

As pointed out before, the per capita income seemed unreliable and diffuse to identify the economic class of the household. A more reliable indicator of wealth is the valuation of the housing-quality. Figure 11 pictures a categorisation of the housing-quality of the respondents. The categorisation is made after visiting and observing the houses and based on indicators such as numbers of rooms and floors, location and drainage, materials, furniture and household density, and general condition of the house. The following categories have been made up: off’, ‘moderate’ and ‘poor’. The ‘well-off’ houses are concrete houses of good condition with multiple rooms, and in many cases multiple stores, these houses are well-furnished and are located in a cleaner area than the latter two categories. The second category ‘moderate’ accounts for basic concrete houses of good condition, commonly consisting of two rooms. The last category ‘poor’ consists of really basic single room houses, mostly thatched roof huts, located in the less favourable polluted areas, and closer towards the sea.

Table 7 The relationship between social class and housing-quality.

Social class Housing-quality

Poor Moderate Well-off Total Fisher folk

% within house ownership 6 33.3% 4 22.2% 8 44.4% 18 100% Non-fisher folk

% within house ownership 6 50.0% 2 16.7% 4 33.3% 12 100% Total 12 40.0% 6 20.0% 12 40.0% 30 100% Table 6 Place of birth of survey respondents.

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20 Both fisher folk as non-fisher folk are presented in all three categories, so there is not a very clear relationship between economic welfare and social class. However, it has to be mentioned that all ‘well-off’ outsiders are living in the southwest part of UOT, and all ‘poor’ outsiders in the northeast part of UOT. Reason for this could be that closer towards Besant Nagar and especially in Tiruvalluvar Nagar, many middleclass people live that have nothing to do with the fisher community. The northeast stretch on the other hand, seems to be providing very poor rental houses for outsiders in the low-wage sector. So within the fishermen group and outsider group poor, moderate and affluent economic classes can be distinguished. The fishermen classes are more evenly spread over the village, although the better housing-standards are only found land inward as figure 11 illustrates.

Figure 11 Spreading of different housing standards throughout UOT.

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21 A very strong relationship has been found between being house ownership and fisher folk. Except for the Tiruvalluvar Nagar are, the only ones who own property are fisher folk. This might indicate that they are the only group who is allowed to own and built a property on the community-grounds. If one keeps in mind that about 40 percent of the community consists of outsiders, who have to rent a place from the fishermen owners, this provides a great income to the fishermen being landlords.

5.2 How land lords profit from outsiders settling in UOT

The presence of immigrants and other ‘outsiders’ in a predominantly homogenous community raises the question if there are any tensions and hostilities between the ‘indigenous’ community and the ‘outsiders’. I have asked several persons if there were any problems regarding the immigrants, but no one stated that this was the case: ‘They just work and mind their own business’ seemed the general

Social class House ownership

House owner Renter Total

Fisher folk

% within house ownership 17 94.1% 1 5.9% 18 100% Non-fisher folk

% within house ownership 4 38.5% 8 54.5% 12 100% Total 21 70.0% 9 30.0% 30 100% Table 8 Relationship between social class and house ownership.

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22 attitude. However, one key respondent showed his strong disapproval towards the what he called ‘illegal houses’, he did not engage in these practices himself, so for him the immigrants provided no benefits. The immigrants rent properties from the indigenous community, so the ‘land lords’ of the community are provided with a major contribution to their income from the immigrants, with monthly rent ranging from Rs. 2.000 to Rs. 6.000. Six out of thirty respondents were involved in renting business, ranging from 1 to 6 properties. Not all available houses were currently occupied, which could mean that the interest of land lords is greater than the interest of rent-seekers, but this is speculative.

The houses in the area do not only differ in physical appearance, they also differ in terms of legal ownership. The north-south stretch along the beach is built illegally is marked as ‘wastelands’ or

poramboke, owned by the government (Kumar et al, 2014). The area comes under authority of the

Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TSNSCB), which means that these people have no right to claim their house, and the government can remove them from the area if they want to. For the more landward part of the village, a majority of households own a patta, which is an Indian legal document proving the ownership of the ground, and gives them far more rights than the people living on government owned lands.

All six land lords were part of the fishermen community. This may be because property rights are not accessible for non-fisher folk. The most notable example is the case of a former fisherman who worked at the Marine Department of the Chennai Port Thrust. We interviewed his son, a second officer at the Merchant Navy, and he informed us that they rented out six properties of Rs. 4000 each in Urur, of which four were currently occupied. The son could not tell what kind of people resided in the properties, although he knew some were Northern Indians. This was by far the most well-off household we interviewed, also from the look of their home. Two other landlords owning each three properties both have a leading function in the Urur Fishermen governance structures. The last three landlords, had more modest households themselves and only rented out a single house, built next to their own simple single or double room house. Not all available properties were currently occupied, but it does show a great interest in renting-out property from the fisher community.

5.5 Sub-conclusion: socioeconomic differentiation of the community

The community of UOT who used to be very homogenous in profession and caste is becoming increasingly differentiated due to the inflow of outsiders and varying economic strength. As it became clear from the previous section, several socioeconomic classes can be identified in the community. First of all there is the group of fisher folk, which can be divided into well-off, moderate and poor. The well-off group has acquired more power in the community than the other groups, for example (ex)-members of the panchayat, they see importance of education, and seek to send their children to higher education. Also, this groups has the best opportunities to engage in land business. The moderate group is less well-off, and has less power within the community, but even this group has access to involving in land business. The poor fishermen has financial struggles and is less educated, they never acquired a strong position within the community. They struggle to provide themselves with their basic needs, and are not able to coordinate a renting-business. In all fishermen classes it is frequently observed that the mother of the household works as a housekeeper in Besant Nagar, which adds income to the household .

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23 The outsider group can be divided into poor outsiders, moderate outsiders, well-off outsiders and working-immigrants. The poor outsiders are especially vulnerable as they cannot rely on the fishermen community strength and do live in poor housing conditions, without owning any property. Moderate outsiders are generally persons who have a slightly better-paid and more secure job than the poor group. The affluent outsiders have access to comfortable housing, and are more often living in Tiruvalluvar Nagar. Working-immigrants essentially have the least ties to the community, but they are provided with a secure income, and that is the only relevant factor for them. Almost all outsiders provide the fishermen with an income, which means they are tied to the community in a financial sense. When the fishermen community protects its livelihood, the outsiders will be able to benefit from their community-strength, as they are part of the fishermen livelihood benefits.

4 Discussion and conclusion: a differentiating

community of opportunists and stragglers

In the previous sections a detailed and complex story about the small fisher settlement UOT in Chennai has been set out. A straightforward answer to the research question is difficult: 'How has the urbanising livelihood of the UOT-community and their socioeconomic status developed in the past decades, and what are their livelihood strategy perspectives for the future?' I will try to answer the main research question as comprehensive as possible, pointing out the relevant findings of the research and discuss these findings by applying the sustainable livelihoods approach in the context of urban poverty and development.

UOT has developed from a homogenous single-profession, single-caste fisher settlement in the dunes near the Adyar River Estuary to a mixed community surrendered by the city of Chennai. UOT’s living standard has improved over the decades, but it is still a very marginalised area. One of the clearest livelihood strategies that has been observed in the community is that families are trying to accumulate human capital by education of their children. The youngest generation is much higher educated than the older generations, with as main goal to acquire a good job to escape the fishing and low-wage sector. It is very disputable however, if a higher education degree will lead to a good job, as having a extensive social network and the right background is crucial to get access to good jobs, especially in India. Still, education is an important source of human capital and improves the resilience of a household as the possibilities for accessing information - such as legal rights- and services - such as loan applications - are improved.

The adjacent higher middle class neighbourhood Besant Nagar and its ‘bourgeois’ residents could stress the livelihood of the UOT community, following the ‘beautification’ and eco-restauration of water bodies rhetoric that has been described by Coelho & Raman (2011) and Arabindoo (2011). The higher middle class strives for beautiful and comfortable beaches without the ‘backward’ fisher folk being present. Coelho & Raman mention 25.000 targeted slum-dwellers who are or will be relocated by the Tamil Nadu Public Works Department, but the UOT-community is currently not targeted with evictions. A more graduate interference of the ‘bourgeois’ is however present in the form of real estate interest and land acquisition to build luxury-apartments. On the one hand this stresses the livelihood of the fishermen as the literal space is being claimed, on the other hand, for those who

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24 have the opportunity to gain from selling plots to real estate developers, this will be a resourceful livelihood strategy as much capital is earned from the purchasing power of the ‘bourgeois’.

In a more general way the presence of the higher-middle class nearby provides the community with a lot of job opportunities because their presence generates a great demand for low-wage service jobs such as housekeeper, vigilant, and taxi drivers and many sell merchandise and food to the visitors of Elliot’s Beach. The mobility of the UOT-community is low because they are not able to spend on travelling costs, and with the everlasting traffic congestion in Chennai much time is wasted as well, so nearly all respondents who were working in the service sector worked at close proximity of UOT in Besant Nagar or Adyar; another wealthy neighbourhood south of the Adyar River.

Another livelihoods strategy involved in ‘land-business’ is generated by the working-immigrants and other outsiders who settle in UOT. Within the territory of Urur-Olcott Kuppam only fishermen are owners of property and allowed to build new property, which gives them the opportunity to rent out properties and earn a substantial extra monthly income. However, not all fishermen are able to do this and those who do not, do not benefit of the presence of outsiders. In Tiruvalluvar Nagar the situation is slightly different, with a more mixed middle-class community.

The strength of fisher communities lies in its ability to mobilise and organise many governmental structures embedded in the community, these assets of human capital improve the resilience of all fisher community members. Fisher villages differ from ‘normal’ urban poor neighbourhood because of these community-based governance structures. Also, fisher communities have a stronger claim on their livelihood because they have historically lived on their lands for ages and because they need their livelihood to maintain their traditional way of life, so what are the resilience perspectives for the

future?

The living quality within the area differs greatly, the community is becoming increasingly heterogeneous, and the trend seems to be that some are improving their welfare much more than others, especially the fishermen who have more power within the community and are involved in land business compared to the poor fishermen who struggle on subsistence level; one could say that the community is divided into ‘opportunists’ who are able to apply many livelihood strategies versus the ‘stragglers’ who are lacking behind. This trend of socioeconomic differentiation or even

polarisation, might continue in the future, although it is impossible to predict to what extend the

social inequality will keep growing. Hypothetically, the community strength of UOT will decline in the future if it will turn into a super heterogeneous urban community. But looking at the perspectives positively, the dynamic urban setting of the livelihood of UOT provides many opportunities for the people of UOT to increase their quality of life, and will likely do so in the future.