Arathy Nair

1145-A

Our Indian cities are undergoing rapid urbanization with great inflow of migrants from rural areas. It is not just employment and better facilities that are causing this shift. There is a part of our cities who suffer because of this rapid urbanization. Fort Kochi in Kerala is one if the colonial zones in the district of Ernakulam which preserves a lot of its cultural and foreign historic influences. There is another side to the same hippie-touristy Fort Kochi. Though slum per say are not a common site in the state, Fort Kochi houses numerous slums with more than a thousand families residing in areas like Kalvathy, Koncheri and Thuruthy. Along with the marginalized and the poor, there are the “victims” of urbanization who willingly or unwillingly had to move to these colonies with sub standard living conditions . With open drainage, polluted water canals, improper sanitation facilities etc. disease outbreaks here are very common. With increasing crime and illegal activities, it is a question how much the physical surrounding is contributing to it. Most of the residents being either a tenant or homeless, how do we ensure ownership of land to the people? The Rajiv Avaaz Yojna( RAY) which had sanctioned around 67.32 Cr. Rupees for the slum redevelopment here was paused even before the beginning. Unfortunately the district Corporation rejected the proposal do to maintenance expenditure and other technical issues.
The project aims to bring an alternate to the proposed government housing