Caste and Waste: A Study on Socio-spatial Inequality in Kodungaiyur Garbage Dump,North Chennai

Abstract

Social and spatial segregation is a significant aspect of inequality worldwide, influenced by factors such as neoliberalism and capitalism. However, it would not be right to attribute it solely to these forces. Historical factors, including caste systems and their associated notions of purity and pollution, have long contributed to territorial divisions. Despite Ambedkar’s belief that urbanization and the anonymity it brings would dismantle the caste system, this has not been borne out in reality. Urban planning still implicitly reinforces caste lines, with disadvantaged communities bearing the brunt of environmental burdens associated with industrialization. As urban areas expand, lower-caste groups face structural and spatial injustices, exacerbated by the deliberate placement of polluting industries and garbage dumps near resettlement areas. As Ambedkar stated, nature is casteized, and the allocation of land and spaces reinforces traditional discrimination through institutional biases.

This research specifically focuses on the largest garbage dump in the city of Chennai, South India, known as Kodungaiyur, spanning 350 acres. This area is home to approximately 50,000 people, predominantly Dalits. Adjacent to the dumpsite is a housing board occupied by slum dwellers who were forcibly evicted from various parts of the city. The historical association of dirt and pollution with Dalits and Dalit bodies is being reproduced even today through various ways like dumping such toxic waste at their place of residence. Even when they settle down in other places, they are forcefully displaced and deprived from living through other forms of livelihood, and they end up doing cleaning or garbage management–related work or become rag pickers. Although the garbage landfill lacks legal approval, it operates under the Chennai Corporation, with around 2,500 tonnes of waste being dumped there daily. Despite politicians making empty promises to remove the dumpsite, it has been in operation for nearly 35 years. The research aims to shed light on the institutional and spatial discrimination endured by Dalit communities in North Chennai. Employing an ethnographic approach and using the lens of urban political ecology, this study seeks to understand the sociopolitical issues faced by the residents of this area. The study focuses on how these spaces are produced and how this spatial discrimination reproduces the social discrimination and hierarchy through institutional means.