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4. Etudes de cas sur le Tamil
Nadu et sur Chennai
4.1.
Une approche
quantitative de la périurbanisation en Inde du Sud.
Sébastien Oliveau
(UMR Géographie-cités, Paris / Institut
Français de Pondichéry)
La
question a laquelle tente de
répondre ma présentation est celle de la mesure
statistique du phénomène
périurbain, afin d’en définir la
dimension spatiale, mais aussi pour essayer de
mettre en évidence les différences observables
selon les villes. Nous nous
appuyons pour cela sur une base de données
géoréférencée qui
intègre les
données du recensement de 1991
[1].
Dans le cadre de l’atelier, seul le Tamil Nadu a
été étudié
[2].
A
partir de cette base de
données, nous avons mis au point un indice
synthétique, permettant d’embrasser
les dimensions économiques (catégories
d’emplois, développement agricole) et
sociales (alphabétisation, fécondité)
des villages, afin d’évaluer leur niveau
relatif d’urbanisation. Nous considérons en effet
que le périurbain est
constitué de villages qui ne sont pas encore urbains mais
qui ont déjà perdu
une majeure partie de leur caractéristique proprement
rurales.
Une
première analyse, prenant en
compte toutes les villes, montre l’évidente
présence d’un phénomène de
périurbanisation, qui s’étend en
moyenne sur 6 kilomètres. En
s’intéressant
seulement aux
cities (villes de
plus
de 100 000 habitants), on remarque que l’espace
périurbain augmente,
confirmant l’hypothèse selon laquelle la
population de la ville est un facteur
de pression sur les campagnes alentours. Néanmoins,
l’étude des trois
métropoles tamoules ne montre pas de différences
significatives, et l’on peut
penser que la population des villes agit plus par effet de seuil que
par
proportionnalité.
Une
analyse prenant en compte un
seul indicateur, caractéristique de
l’urbanité (le nombre
d’employés dans les
services) montre des différences plus marquées,
qui souligne la position
particulière de Chennai (la seule
megacity
–ville de plus de 5 millions d’habitants–
du Tamil Nadu).
Il
conviendra donc, et c’est
l’objectif d’un projet en cours,
d’approfondir ces résultats, en comparant
d’une part la situation entre 1991 et 2001 et en comparant la
situation dans
les autres états du sud de l’Inde
(Kérala, Karnataka, Andra Pradesh) d’autre
part.
4.2.
Governance in urban environmental management: comparing accountability
and
performance in multi-stakeholder arrangements in South India
Isa
Baud
(University of Amsterdam) and
R. Dhanalakshmi
Current debates on urban
governance suggest
that
multi-stakeholder arrangements between providers and users of
environmental
services – especially those in which there are direct
democratic
decision-making - lead to more accountability and better performance in
service
provision.
In India, the issue of
increasing
multi-stakeholder arrangements in the provision of urban services has
been
raised increasingly in recent years, as attempts to improve services
have run
up against the vast size of India’s mega-cities and the
limited budgets of
Indian government at the various levels concerned. To raise such
questions is
important as India’s international economic role is becoming
more important, as
it experiences high growth rates in recent years. International
outsourcing and
joint ventures set up with international companies are providing new
employment
opportunities to India’s educated urban population; however,
for such growth to
continue, it is important that urban infrastructure, housing and
transport
systems, and basic services also improve to international standards to
complement the competitiveness of India’s labour force (cf.
Sassen, 2000;
Castells, 1996).
Indian cities
– urban agglomerations - form interesting cases in point to
examine these
issues. The Nagarpalika Act (74th Amendment to the Constitution) has
provided
the legal context for extensive decentralisation processes, which have
given
local governments more powers, and brought representation much closer
to urban
citizens through the channel of the ward committees. Strengthening
participation of citizens in local government initiatives has occurred
both
within the mega-cities of India, like Chennai, as well as in the
municipalities
surrounding them. This paper analyses the situation in municipalities
around
Chennai, India, one of the cities in the UNCHS Sustainable Cities
Programme,
with regard to a major type of environmental service under
construction. It compares
successful and non-successful cases of underground sewerage systems,
analysing
the factors in their multi-stakeholder arrangements that led to their
differential results.
The paper first discusses the theoretical
discussions
on stakeholder arrangements, taking into consideration the rationale
for such
arrangements, the forms they take, the conditions under which they
function
effectively, and their outcomes. On this theoretical basis, the study
of
peri-urban Chennai is taken up.
In municipalities around
Chennai, councillors
are elected as representatives of their wards, geographical areas
designated
within the municipalities. In this situation in which local government
and
elected representatives work together, there is a potential to develop
direct
relations with organisations set up by citizens to improve quality of
life
issues in their immediate vicinity, i.e. multi-stakeholder arrangements
for
improving local basic services.
Three main issues are taken up
for discussion
in the paper. The first concerns which actors actually participate in
multi-stakeholder arrangements (and which are excluded), and the
varying powers
and resources they can bring to the arrangement (Baud, 2004). The
second
concerns the processes by which decisions are made and implemented in
such
arrangements; particularly interesting are the checks and balances, and
the
types of obstacles such arrangements run up against. The third issue
concerns
the outcomes of such arrangements; do they actually improve urban
provision of
services, and if so, for whom? This question obviously raises issues of
equality among different groups of citizens in accessing urban basic
services.
The municipalities studied were selected for
their
varying location around the city, and cover the north, west, and
southern parts
of the metropolitan area. The choice was made to focus on peri-urban
areas
rather than the Corporation area, as the lack of basic services is more
immediately visible in those areas. The fieldwork consisted of
strategic
discussions with local officials, councillors and civil society
organisations
of various types. Each municipality has 40-50 wards, of which a 10%
sample of
the different groups representing citizens (ward councillors, and
Resident
Welfare Associations and/or Community Based Organisations) was selected
for
discussions.
The first round of interviews with councillors,
officers, commissioners and civil society organisations provided us
with an
overview of what amenities are available in peri-urban areas in terms
of urban
services, and gave us an idea of what types of collective organisation
among
citizens existed, and whether or not multi-stakeholder arrangements had
emerged. It brought out a lack of services in underground sewerage
systems,
which were then studied further in a second round of interviews. Two
contrasting cases of setting up underground sewerage systems were
analysed in
municipalities which are very similar in other respects; one in which
the
initiative was successful and one in which obstacles prevented the
initiative
from being carried out successfully until now. The contrasts provide
insights
into the processes of partnering and bring out the factors, which are
important
in determining the outcomes of such arrangements.
The
conclusions of the
study show
that the
peri-urban municipalities around Chennai have a pattern of
multi-stakeholder
arrangements in which resident welfare associations play a role.
However, they
are primarily found in middle- and high-income areas, and not in
low-income
neighbourhoods. This contrasts with the majority of literature, which
stresses
civil society associations in low-income areas.
Partnerships in
multi-stakeholder arrangements
are found when investments in new public service systems are necessary.
Nevertheless, the level of participation by civil society organisations
is more
limited than that of government and the external agency providing
loans; they
are not allowed a say in designing the service or in its technical
aspects.
Their participation is limited to financial contributions and
monitoring of
implementation. The outside donor and private consultant to the
municipality
have a strong say in the design; the level of influence of the private
contractor is not known.
Interestingly, in the
situations studied, domestic
large-scale private companies are the preferred partners. This is in
contrast
to many other urban localities, where foreign companies are often the
contractors.
Each participating organisation
contributes
money, time, and political capital to the process of partnering. The
outcomes
are in principle designed to have benefits for all partners, so that
there is a
clear rationale for all parties to participate in the process. The arrangement in India
allows for more
investment to be made in public services, for which otherwise
municipalities do
not have the funds. It also gives citizens a greater stake in and
responsibility the sustainability of the public systems put in place,
as they
wish to preserve their investments in the system.
The situation with multiple actors and
different kinds of contributions makes multi-stakeholder arrangements
complex networks, with
different
forms of tri-partite networks emerging.
The process of partnering has
been said to
improve accountability to users of the public services. In the
situations found
in peri-urban municipalities near Chennai, accountability of local
government
to the residents involved in the arrangements was clearly improved,
although
their own organisations were instrumental in negotiating that
accountability.
Accountability by state-level
government bodies
sanctioning the process for implementation remained very low, and made
the
process unpredictable in its timing, coordination and outcome.
Particularly the
feedback loops by which changes in the process had to be renegotiated
with
government departments slowed down such processes significantly.
Outside
political influences also remained a source of uncertainty in the
process,
especially when such infrastructure-building processes spill over
beyond the
length of time one political party is in power.
A positive influence is the
conditions set by
the outside funding organisation, which has civil society participation
mandatory for its loans. This anchors such participation firmly in the
arrangement, through contract. In the Indian situation, this seems to
be
sufficient at the local level, although not at the state level. This
strengthens Ackerman’s observation that legal frameworks are
important
anchoring processes for participation (Ackerman, 2004).
These conclusions suggest that
different forms
of accountability exist side-by-side within such complex arrangements;
and that
we need to move beyond the dichotomy suggested in the World Development
Report
2004, of direct or indirect accountability. Particularly, the way the
different
scale levels of accountability affect each other needs to be taken into
account
within a complex network.
The extent of social capital in
the form of
Resident Welfare Associations or urban forums built up among citizens
has
increased in both the municipalities – suggesting that
involvement itself is an
impetus.
In terms of performance, it is
perhaps too soon
to say that multi-stakeholder arrangements have more positive outcomes
than
straight government provision. It is clear that the current
arrangements are
mainly limited to the needs of middle- and high-income citizens, and
that
low-income households are not included in these types of investment
systems.
The complexity of the networks and the processes of partnering
involved, with
their non-linear feedback loops of permissions and sanctions, make
outcomes
very unpredictable. However, when they work well, they provide clear
incentives
for citizen investment, and also to remain stakeholders in the
long-term
sustainability of the public services put in place.
4.3.
The tripartite agreement in peri-urban Chennai: Rural impact of farmers
selling
water to Chennai Metropolitan Water Board
Marie Gambiez
(Institut
National d’Agronomie de Paris-Grignon), Emilie
Lacour (INA P-G),
Joël Ruet (Centre de
Sciences Humaines de New Delhi)
Scope
and Context
India
faces an unprecedented urban growth. Urban studies properly speaking
get
complemented by new series of studies on the peripheries or adjacent
villages/
towns / districts of major urban centres. These ‘peri-urban
studies’ recover a
multiple, varying, definition of what is
‘peri-urban’, ranging from a mere
concept of geographic proximity to more dynamic aspects of the built
environment. Equally, the relationships between the demographic
dynamics and
the concept of peri-urbanity are under discussions, for transitory
regimes may
matter: a fast growing city (and in that respect middle size cities
grow faster
today than metropolitan cities in India) might affect more the building
dynamics,
while on the issue of resources, stock matters and metropolitan cities,
though
slowing down their growth nowadays might have stronger impacts on their
fringes
and neighbourhoods, due to ‘threshold’ effects. The
aim of our paper is neither
to provide a definition of peri-urbanity nor to clinch out these
debates, but
to contribute through a case study of the impact of today’s
water scarcity in
Chennai, which is the outcome of a long-term cumulative water
management
system, and its rural neighbourhoods, that we will identify with
‘peri-urban’
zones without much more discussion than the fact that, on a holistic
perspective of water management in the Chennai Metropolitan Development
area,
the studied zones have become part of an metropolitan water system.
Chennai
and the adjoining rural areas suffer in a recurrent manner from water
shortage.
It is aggravated by the climate in Tamil Nadu and calls for a better
water
resource management. In fact, the rainfall is not regular during the
year:
there is a dry season every year and another point is that rainfall can
be very
changing for one year to another, while neither the urban ground water,
nor the
demand management are integrated management with a Chennai Metrowater
Board
(CMWSSB) system that remains mostly centralised technique-based and
supply-oriented (Ruet, Saravanan, Zérah, 2002; Dematedee
network, under Ruet
& Zérah, 2004, Janakarajan 2002 & 2004).
Namely,
in Chennai metropolitan area, the water supply systems can’t
meet the
increasing demand of water. This involves an important competition
between
different users: farmers, industries and domestic consumers. The
allocation of
water resources becomes thus a major question, both de jure and de
facto.
The surrounding area of
Chennai
is particularly
under the influence of the city and its water problems. Indeed, during
the
water shortage periods, some farmers can sell water to the city, which
induces
specific systems of water management. It is the case for the Water
Board which
introduced the water purchasing agreement named the Tripartite
Agreement in its
wellfields. It concerns three actors or types of actors: Chennai
Metropolitan
Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB), Tamil Nadu Electricity Board
(TNEB)
and farmers, at an individual level.
Methodology
The survey included
meetings
with several
officers of the CMWSSB, a visit to one of the Booster Stations in the
well-fields near the village of Magaral, named Magaral Booster Station.
This
station contains one of the collecting tanks of the well-fields and
collects
water from 32 farmers as well as receiving water from CMWSSB-owned
wells in
Tamarapakkam, Poondi and Flood Plains Wellfields. We gathered
information
concerning water collected everyday from private agricultural wells.
This data
was available at the station from June 2001 onwards.
According to surface
owned, we
were able to
segregate the population working for agriculture in three different
types. The
first farmers are the most well-off cultivators, they own more than 3
acres and
have the financial capacity to invest in growing crops such as rice or
sugar
cane. The second are cultivators who own between 1 and 3 acres: they
grow rice
or groundnut and vegetables, depending on the types of soil they have.
The
third own between 0 and 1 acres, they often grow crops such as
vegetables that
provide regular income or lentils which do not require high costs. They
also
work as agricultural labourers in the fields of the first two
categories. We
considered those breeding animals as a category apart as they
represented a
small proportion of farmers.
Our basic aim was to be
able to
see if the
water purchasing agreement had an effect on the agricultural world.
First, we wanted to observe how the
sale
of water to the CMWSSB had affected the agricultural practices.
For this, we took in
consideration
three different factors:
- Types
of crops grown and rotation of crops,
- Cultivated
surface (total and surface per crop),
- Capacity
to invest (equipment, agricultural inputs...).
Second, we aimed to calculate the
farmers'
total income before and after the sale of water to the CMWSSB: before
and after
2001.
For this, we had to calculate:
- The
agricultural profit: profit due only to cultivation
- The
water-selling profit: profit due to the sale of water to the WB
59 farmers were
surveyed: 32
selling farmers
and 27 other farmers chosen at random.
Main
Findings
We
have evolved a stylisation of different categories of farmers to
study these effects of the sale of water. Our results helped us decide
on three
different categories according to the link they had to this sale:
The selling farmers: they
sell water to the CMWSSB. They are obviously the
most directly linked to the sale of water.
The dependent farmers: they are dependent on the selling
farmers because
they used to buy water from them. We decided to isolate this category
because
we assumed that it corresponded to those who would be directly affected
by the
sale of water depending on how the selling farmers manage their water
supply. The non-dependent farmers: they
are
non-dependent in the sense that they don’t depend on the
selling farmers for
their water supply. We
made the
hypothesis that they wouldn’t be directly affected by the
sale of water. In
that case, the evolution of agriculture for them would correspond to a
“normal”
or “natural” evolution. We will use them as a
control group in order to observe
the real impact of the sale of water on agriculture for the first two
categories of farmers.
Evolution
of surfaces and
types of crop due to the sale of water
We first tried to see the
evolution of total
cultivated surface per farmer. From 1999 to 2002, comparing for selling
farmers
as well as for non-dependent farmers the % of decrease of cultivated
surfaces
for the same farmers, one sees that, for non-dependent farmers (control
group),
the number of acres cultivated per farmer has dropped in a relative
similar way
between the four years: about 8%. For those selling to the WB, we can
clearly
see that there has been an important drop between 2000 and 2001: 43%
less
cultivated surfaces compared to a drop of 0 to 1% between 1999-2000 and
2001-2002.
This can lead us to conclude
that, since the
water purchasing contracts started in march 2001, the drop observed
between
2000 and 2001 for selling farmers is caused by this sale of water.
Evolution
of profits for
selling farmers
An important increase
in profit
on average
(including their agricultural income as well as the profit due to the
sale of
water) has materialised on average, but dependent farmers have seen
their
income decrease. The sale of water has changed existing links between
farmers
due to many factors: they are socio-economical, geographical, and
technical.
First
factor is socio-economical: farmers who do not have borewell cannot
sell water
to the CMWSSB. This category of farmers cannot afford to dig a borewell
and
corresponds roughly to the lowest social class among farmers.
The
second factor is geographical: only the farmers who own a borewell
within 2 km
of Magaral Booster Station are eligible for the sale of water to the WB.
Third is
the technical factor: farmers chosen by CMWSSB are those who can
extract enough
water from their borewell.
These
factors explain that the sale of water to the WB has changed links
between
farmers. If we focus ourselves on social class, two types of farmers
have
evolved on the socio-economical scale: selling farmers have become
richer and
dependent farmers have become poorer due to a decrease in their water
supply.
Apparently, the other farmers are not affected by the sale of water,
that is,
if we suppose that there hasn’t already been an
impact of the sale of water to Chennai City on the groundwater level.
4.4. Examining the
Peri-Urban Interface as a Constructed Primordialism: A Socio-Spatial
Analysis
of Neighbourhood Transformations in Peri-Urban Chennai
Pushpa
Arabindoo (London School of Economics and
Political
Sciences, London)
Akin to the tendency of
western
scholars to
locate their urban concerns on the fringes of their cities, a
discussion is
emerging in the Indian circles on the phenomenon of peri-urbanisation
in major
metropolitan areas. This paper tests on field two of the hypotheses set
forth
by the workshop brief. The first concerns the interrelationship between
the
dynamics of transformation in the periphery and the centre of the
metropolis.
The second relates to a condition of heterogeneity and fragmentation
brought
forth by the social and cultural overlap of the settlement patterns in
peripheral areas.
Just as the American
metropolis
was usefully
employed as a conceptual crucible to study the impact of
suburbanisation, a
similar strategy is adopted to study the peri-urban dynamics and its
relationship with the centre. By placing the peri-urban condition under
the
umbrella of metropolitan development, it is presented as a constructed
primordialism – where the edge is primordial to the
urban-rural interface, but
whose mutations are primarily constructed and conjured by the
manipulations of
post-independent metropolitan planning. Few urban concepts have endured
with
such persistent applicability. In this context, the metropolitan
phenomenon has
been durably resilient and elastic, as seen in the influential role it
played
in the modern times of urban boom and expansion, as well as in its
chameleonic
ability to tailor itself to the now fashionable postmodern mould.
Locating the
fieldwork in the southern periphery of Chennai, socio-spatial
transformations
of borderland neighbourhoods are assessed – first of all, in
terms of the role
played by the planning regulations of metropolitan development
authority in the
earlier decades, and more lately in terms of the visible postmodern
features of
pluralism, multiplicity and segmentation that are often attributed to
the
imposing play of global capital. Interviews with homeowner associations
and
residents are supplemented by a morphological analysis of the spatial
transformations over the past twenty five years.
The choice of the two
neighbourhoods—Valmiki
Nagar and Neelangarai cannot be more appropriate. Until recently, both
were
located in the periphery of the city, till the expansion of the city
boundary
in 1978 left them on opposite sides of the fence, and completely
transformed.
Valmiki Nagar has morphed from an exclusive upper class sparse
settlement of
retired bureaucrats to cater to a visibly denser, younger, peripatetic,
and
cosmopolitan community. The newer residents are a mix of middle- and
upper-middle classes and are marked by indifference to one and all. In
contrast
is the transformation of Neelangarai from a sleepy little village to
first
incorporate the condensed housing desires of working middle class
communities,
and later to the more-space consuming needs of the upper class
mansions. The
metamorphosis from class homogeneity to heterogeneity in both cases can
only be
explained through a combined assessment of the initial tenets of
development
planning and how in recent times, planning authorities have been party
to the
locational tantrums of global capital. This is evident not only in the
transformation of the neighbourhood structure but in the gentrification
of the public spaces as well.
4.5. Dynamiques
périurbaines
des grandes métropoles indiennes :
Le cas de
Chennai : premiers résultats
Philippe Cadène
(UMR SEDET,
CNRS-Université Paris 7 & Institut
Français de Pondichéry) et Kamala
Marius-Gnanou (UMR
ADES-TEMPOS CNRS-Université
Bordeaux 3 &
Institut Français de Pondichéry)
Cette communication est
une
introduction au projet sur les
dynamiques périurbaines de la métropole de
Chennai mené dans le cadre de
l’Institut Français de Pondichéry.
L’objectif de notre étude est de comprendre
d’une part l’expansion urbaine dans sa
périphérie rurale, d’autre part les
processus en cours en termes de localisation des activités
urbaines
(résidentielles, industrielles, agricoles, de services) de
la périphérie de la
première métropole du Tamil Nadu.
Hypothèses
de
travail : Entre villes et campagnes, les franges
extrêmes des
agglomérations souffrent d’un manque de
définition. Or ces espaces sont dans
bon nombre de régions du monde en développement
en pleine extension et les
populations qui les occupent sont de plus en plus nombreuses
Les chercheurs
embarrassés pour définir une
société propre
à ces périphéries les
définissent le plus souvent par leurs caractères
spatiaux. Il suffit de décrire une mosaïque de
villages, formant une sorte de
troisième couronne urbanisée à la
périphérie des agglomérations,
caractérisée
par un paysage de type rural, à ce titre bien
différente de la seconde
couronne, construite elle au contact direct de la banlieue et dans
laquelle
lotissements et activités diverses (industrielles,
résidentielles, de loisir)
ont conquis une part majoritaire de l’espace. En Inde, dans
un contexte de
globalisation, différents processus semblent
aujourd’hui se cumuler pour
produire des changements extrêmement rapides et profonds et
des situations
immédiatement très complexes.
Du
fait des
problèmes nombreux liés aux
difficultés de la gestion urbaine dans ces villes,
en raison des
blocages fonciers, du
manque d’eau, d’espace mais aussi, du fait de
l’incitation des planificateurs
urbains (Master Plan, 2011), les entrepreneurs trouvent dans les
espaces
périurbains des lieux adaptés au
développement industriel, utilisant d’une part
comme main d’œuvre non qualifiée la
population des villages et d’autre part la
main-d’œuvre qualifiée des villes. Les
populations des villages reculés
n’hésitent guère en effet à
effectuer de très longs trajets en autobus, dans un
contexte où le sous-emploi est un fléau
permanent et concerne tout particulièrement
les populations rurales. Le développement industriel des
lointaines
périphéries, mais aussi l’implantation
d’autres activités dans les villages, à
l’exemple d’établissements
d’enseignement supérieur, conduisent des membres
des
couches moyennes urbaines à effectuer des migrations
quotidiennes de la ville
vers les espaces périurbains. Ces trajets sont souvent
effectués dans des
autobus ou autres véhicules affrétés
par les entreprises ou autres
institutions. La mobilité est donc le point clé
pour comprendre la création et
le développement de ces nouveaux espaces qui
intègrent un large nombre de
villages dans la dynamique des métropoles. La planification
urbaine a favorisé
d’une certaine manière une
spécialisation de ces espaces périurbains tant en
termes économiques (industriel, agricole,
éducation) que résidentiels (nouveaux
lotissements, gated communities).
Sur le plan méthodologique,
il
nous a paru important de recenser
tout d’abord la littérature scientifique
existante, puis les documents
officiels de planification urbaine (Master Plan, 2011) et enfin les
sites
Internet officiels de la municipalité de Chennai et de la
région.
Afin
de comprendre les processus
à l’origine des mutations économiques,
sociales et spatiales importantes
expérimentées par les
sociétés rurales locales, nous avons
sélectionné deux
villages sur la route technologique (IT road) Sholingalanur
situé dans l’aire
métropolitaine à 30 kms du centre ville de
Chennai et Kelambackam à l’extérieur
de l’aire métropolitaine pour y mener des
enquêtes durant trois semaines. Par
ailleurs, des entretiens auprès des responsables du CMDA (Chennai Metropolitan Development Area) et
des chercheurs de
l’Institut de télédétection
ont été utiles dans la compréhension
des phénomènes
de métropolisation.
Le
CMDA contrôle une zone
métropolitaine de 1177 km2 comprenant 7,5 millions
d’habitants en 2001 contre
4,6 millions en 1981). L’aire métropolitaine
comprend l’agglomération de
Chennai (6,5 millions d’habitants), et plusieurs autres types
de villes et 211
villages. La croissance la plus importante s’est produite
dans la périphérie le
long des corridors urbains planifiés en structure radiale,
reliés par des
villes satellites. Planifiées dès 1991, ces
villes satellites destinées au
départ à décongestionner
l’agglomération,
n’ont connu leur plein développement
que deux décennies plus tard dès
lors qu’une mise en périphérie des
industries (automobiles notamment) et des
services aux entreprises (services informatiques, call
centres,
télémédecine…) ont
été planifiés, notamment au Sud de
la métropole. Rien que le secteur des technologies de
l’information et des
services aux entreprises a absorbé près de la
moitié des espaces disponibles
sur le marché.
Etudes de cas :Sholingalanur,
commune située à 30 kms du
centre ville de Chennai a été choisie comme
terrain d’étude en raison de son
caractère rural traditionnel, elle est aujourd’hui
reliée de part et d’autre
par la East Coast Road et la IT road. Près de 1000 bus
appartenant aux
compagnies (Wipro Infosys, Tata Consultant, Cognizant...) et aux Ecoles
d’ingénieurs passent quotidiennement par cette
commune. Le recensement de 2001
évaluait le nombre d’habitants de cette commune
à 15536 habitants contre 8526
en 1991, mais selon
le « président du panchayat »
(responsable de la commune), la commune a doublé
entre 2001 et 2004 passant ainsi de 150 000 à
300 000 habitants.
Cette petite commune divisée en quatre quartiers
traditionnels et longtemps
dominée par la caste des cultivateurs Naickers (ils
possédaient 75 % des
terres) connaît des mutations spatiales et
socio-économiques importantes depuis
l’arrivée de ces entreprises informatiques et des
écoles d’ingénieurs. Selon le
responsable de la commune, plus de la moitié des terres
agricoles situées
notamment en bordure des routes principales ont
été vendues à des prix qui ne
cessent d’augmenter (700 000 roupies par cent en 2004 contre 400 000
roupies en 2000), favorisant ainsi
une spéculation foncière.
Si
35 % des actifs de cette
commune étaient employés dans
l’agriculture en 1991, c’est moins de 9 %
en
2001, selon le dernier recensement. Certes, les femmes et les ouvriers
saisonniers agricoles ne sont pas comptabilisés dans le
recensement, or on sait
aujourd’hui que l’essentiel des
activités agricoles et des activités dans le
secteur de construction n’est réalisé
que par des saisonniers. Bon nombre des
ces saisonniers originaires entre autres de l’Andhra Pradesh
vivent dans des
huttes construites par des Naickers dans un des quartiers de la commune
(Akkarai). La seule enclave qui ne semble avoir subi aucune mutation
tant sur
le plan social qu’économique est le hameau de
pêcheurs situé en bord de mer,
l’on remarque cependant quelques belles villas du week-end
appartenant à de
riches politiciens et acteurs non loin de cette enclave.
L’autre
stratégie des Naickers
est de construire des studios pour des jeunes célibataires
très mobiles
professionnellement. Enfin les nouveaux quartiers sont
composés de villas
appartenant à des familles de la classe moyenne
aisée travaillant essentiellement
dans les Ecoles d’ingénieurs et dans une faible
mesure dans les entreprises de
services ou à Chennai. Sholingalanur constitue donc un
espace périurbain
typique dans un contexte de métropolisation rapide. Cette
commune exemplifie
les transformations radicales dans un contexte de politique urbaine (cyber corridor) combiné
à une offre
d’emplois importante et à une demande de logement
liée aussi à un accès à
l’eau
encore possible.
Dans
un contexte de
métropolisation rapide et de mise en
périphérie d’entreprises
liée à une réelle
planification urbaine, il est nécessaire de
redéfinir de nouveaux concepts et
de nouvelles méthodes de recherche relatifs aux
périphéries de ces grandes
métropoles indiennes.
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