Tsunami Colonies : Rehabilitating or Ghettoizing the Disaster-Affected?

Globally, China, the USA, India, the Philippines and Indonesia account for maximum number of disasters. Geographical terrain, rapid population growth, environmental degradation resulting from development projects and climate change have increased the intensity, magnitude and frequency of disasters. As a result, natural disasters have become more intense and unpredictable. Natural disasters not only adversely impact human lives, livelihood opportunities and property, but also result in voluntary and forced migrations of people on a large scale.

Against this backdrop, this paper tries to examine the post-disaster resettlement in the context of policy formulation and its implementation. This aspect, it has been noticed, has hardly been debated among the disaster mitigation experts. This paper focuses on post-tsunami experiences of tsunami affected communities from coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India. Visiting the resettlement colonies, popularly known as tsunami colonies, after ten years since the disaster, the article foregrounds the livelihood challenges faced by the inhabitants of the colonies and the policy lacuna in addressing these circumstances.