The Area
SPEED Trust concentrates its efforts in one of the biggest slum areas of Chennai: Gandhi Nagar – Sathyavani Muthu Nagar.
This slum is located in the heart of the city, opposite the Central Railways station. 800 metres in length, 200 meters wide, it is bordered in the North by the sewage-river Kuvam. It shelters about 2,600 families, i.e. 15,000 people, among which half are below 18 years old.
Most of the male slum-dwellers work as casual laborers, cycle-rickshaw pullers or auto-rickshaw drivers. Many women, most of them being isolated, are employed as house-maids for monthly wages below Rs.600. All of them live in a state of deep poverty, leading them to put their children to work as soon as possible.
SPEED Trust also intervenes in other slum areas in Chennai: Chintadripet, Sathya Nagar, Nochikuppam and Pallavan Nagar.
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