Contested Relocations

Kerala has a coastal line of 590 kilometre (km), out of which around 350 km are under the severe threat of coastal erosion and vulnerable to a range of hazards. It is the fourth most extensive coastline of India’s 8,118 km sea coast. The consequences of hazards, such as floods, tsunami, sea wave formations, coastal erosion, cyclones, and high power tides have affected the lives and livelihoods of the coastal communities in the state. The never-ending physical and social vulnerability makes them a consistent tagline of “outlier” from the so-called achievements of the state (Kurien 1995). Landlessness, poor housing, relatively high infant mortality and maternal mortality, low level of life expectancy, worsening sanitary conditions, adverse female–male ratio, poverty-induced disease, to name a few continue to beset these groups (GoK 2011).

The Government of Kerala (GoK) has been a front runner in social innovations and introduced a series of fishery interventions to better their socio-economic position. Housing is one area of innovation that has been incorporated in the policy and programme of rehabilitating the fishers from the disaster-prone area, especially those living within 50 metres (m) from the high tideline (HTL). Before this, the fisheries department has delivered housing needs under the two lakh and four lakh housing schemes, the 10 lakh housing rehabilitation project, the Ockhi house scheme and finally, the house repair scheme (GoK 2020a).