Refugees of DEVELOPMENT and DE RESERVATION

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time- Two Hundred Forty Five

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/

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15/12/2009

PETA Campaigns 2009: When saving wildlife became a sexy job!

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaigns have been very active in stripping down for a cause, literally so. We take a look at some of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaigns in 2009:

Protesters from the animal rights groups PETA and Anima Naturalis take part in a demonstration against bullfighting a day before the start of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona July 5, 2009.

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http://green.in.msn.com/greenliving/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3484676

Court cites $1.6 mn networth, refuses bail to Rana

Pakistan-born terror suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana, accused of complicity in Mumbai terror attacks, has been denied bail by a Chicago court saying he has the means and ability to flee abroad should he be released from custody.
Rana is a Canadian citizen with 'means and knowledge to flee internationally, he has substantial financial resources and international contacts... there are no conditions of release that would reasonably ensure his appearance,' the judge said.

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India emerged as Nuclear Hindu Superpower as the Aboriginal, Indigenous, Minority Communities had to be slaughtered or ejected out of their Home Land in an UNDOCUMENTED Indian Holocaust manipulated by Bengali Brahmins aligned with MK Gandhi, JL Nehru and the Hegemony within. Bengali Brahmin leaders did everything to destroy the SC communities in East Bengal who not only elected DR BR Ambedkar to the Constitutional Assembly, but led the Indian Peasant Movement throughout the Colonial Rule aligned with Aboriginal Tribes and Muslims and finally deprived the Bengali Brahmins the transfer of Power until 1947 as all Governments in Bengal were consisted of Muslim Dalit Combination! The SC Communities in East Bengal led by Harichand Thakur led the Historical CHANDAL Movement right in Nineteenth Century beside Indigo Revolt and the Untouchibility Abolition Movement began in form of Dalit Renaissance in East Bengal. Bengali Brahmins conspired with Nehru, Mountbatten and Redcliff to exclude Hindu Dominated SC areas of East Bengal and ejected out millions of them. The BC Roy govt. as well as Govt.of India Never recognised them as Refugee but were obliged to resettle them. Afraid of Muslim Dalit alignment to upset the apple cart once again, the SC Refugees were forcibly ousted from Bengal and had been Scattered all over the Country in Dense forest areas inhibited by aboriginal Tribes. It was the Most Grand Demographic manipulation to pit the Most Militant Dalit refugees against the Tribals, specially in Central India. The Brahmin Hegemony never did voice against the Persecution of Minorities in East Bengal and Never did initiate any diplomatic initiative to stop the Refugee Influx which continues even today.

Now armed with Citizenship Amendment Act and INfosis Nilekani`s Unique identity Number Project , the National Zionist Brahaminical hegemony has launched a nationwide Deportation Drive against these Resettled refugees branding all of them as Bangladeshi Immigrants. But the New citizenship Law is implemented in Natural resource Affluent areas, primarily in Central India and Dandakaranya, where coincidentally Chettiar Chidambaram has Declared a CORPORATE War against the Indigenous Tribe to make ground for the Monopolistic capture for the India Incs, MNCs, builders and promoters! I have visited the Coastal Orissa districts which has been chosen for Unique Identity Number Pilot project around Paradip and kalingnagar where SEZ areas have to be developed for Pasco and Tatas.

The Government of India Incs has not to resolve the pending refugee problem rather it has selected all the Partition Victims for Ethnic Cleansing along with the TAMIL and Chakma Refugees! On the other hand, the Ruling Hegemony has Destroyed the Aboriginal Indigenous Production system, Livelihood and Life on the name of Development and Infrastructure. The hegemony made the Tribal People BONDED Labour and drove them from their villages all on the name of Development since 1947. The Tribes have NO right to Land and lost their traditional rights to Natural resources for which they had been fighting since Mohanjodoro Harappa days.

DVC Project Refugees , Bhakhra Nangal Dam, Steel Plat, Mines and the Refugees within since Fifties have not been resettled as yet. Most of the Tribal Villages are Never registered as Revenue Villages and So Called development and Flagship Welfare Programmes so hyped had always been IRRELEVANT for our Black Untouchable Original Kith and Kin! I have seen it in Uttarakhand , Bihar and UP with my experiences of Tharu Buksha Tribal People. I have seen it all over in North east and central India inflicted by Maoist Menace!

I was involved in intense discussion with my daily Commuter Friends in Princep Ghat down local this evening as we indulged ourselves into Economic reforms, development, Human resource Management, Growth rate, Inflation, food Insecurity, displacement and exodus with the Priorities in the colonial Economy! We discussed the Different was and Paradox of Growth in China and India comparatively.

India has Opted for IT and Technology killing its Agriculture while China emphasised in production while our economic activities reduced into services and Marketing. We Produce nothing. china is well ahead in Total factor Growth rate than the rest of the world including the so called Developed Block. We have opted for First Language English education and passing in Mother language, the second language is optional. Wiping out mother tongue and folk culture, we kill all Aboriginal Indigenous Communities who may not purchase Education and skill in the Imported Knowledge Economy in Disastrous Free market economy and our World has been put on Fire! We have destroyed nature and handed over Natural Resources to Corporate Imperialism denying any democratic opposition of so called economic reforms. We Black Out Information and Mind Control Machinery is in full cry. We have become Habitual in spilling BLOOD on the name of nationalism, Hindutva, patriotism, Ethnonationalism, national security and integrity killing constitution, democratic institutions and the sovereignty of the Individual as well as nation!

The Rural World is eliminated as agriculture and the natural ways of Livelihood local in mother language for the uneducated unskilled Humanity have been SHUTTERED down. The unskilled labour have to migrate and concentrate in Urban, semi urban and metro campus creating the Population Pressure as we never tried to deal with Human Resource Management scientifically and the Zionist Colonial fascist Brahaminical State Power has diverted National Revenue in the Killer Money machine. nationality Problem is Never Addressed and Ethnonationalism AOUSED to sustain Manusmriti Rule to keep on Enslavement, bondage and Divide within the society. Our education system has reduced in a syllabus to create a Consumer world without Purchasing Power while the Resurgence of Affluent Sensex Class has the pass word for ATM, DEBIT and Credit card to make Currency irrelevant and Plastic Money ejects out Black Untouchables from their Home, Land and Livelihood.

DE RESERVATION was also the topic highly Volatile as LPG mafia has taken over the Country and Ambedkarites have indulged themselves in One point Agenda of Share in power without Empowerment and Internal democracy. While Privatisation and disinvestment have made RESERVATION Irrelevant. In west Bengal it is Never Easy to get a caste Certificate. thousands of candidates roam around having passed different exams for job but the Reservation and quota Posts lie VACANT as Worthy candidate are always Unavailable and suddenly those Posts being DE RESERVED caste Hindu candidates get the appointment. In Other parts of India, DE RESERVATION is quite in Vogue. Only last day, some members in the parliament raised the issue during Zero Hour. Twenty Eight Lac reserve posts are alleged to be DE RESERVED. But it is denied by the government. FEES have been Multiplied ten times while the Creamy layer cut off remains the same. Hence, reservation in IIT, IIM and other elite educational Institutions have become irrelevant. last week , West Bengal Assembly passed a BILL to declare everyone getting Eighteen thousand as CREAMY layer. he and His OFFSPRINGS have no right to get Reservation benefit. The News remains blacked out.

"Prices are a major area of concern," but they cannot be "merely solved by rhetoric. Corrective economic steps are to be taken," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Rajya Sabha. He was replying to a debate on the Appropriation Bill for supplementary demands for grants.

Mukherjee said inflation, especially of food items, has gone up because of the "cost push factor" following a high level of government support prices paid to farmers - be it sugarcane, wheat or rice. However,there would be no going back and "farmers will have to be encouraged."

When a micro hydel project was inaugurated in the Narmada valley, it took the anti-dam struggle a step forward by pointing out an alternative to the dam. The fight for land rights continues alongside. Adivasis who live in forests have been deemed 'encroacher'. Their de facto ownership must be acknowledged.

67.7 million of the worlds 220 million indigenous people live in India making up roughly 8% of the population. Despite this minority status most of India's "development" projects seem to occur on tribal lands, resulting in their displacement. The tribal people of India collectively call themselves Adivasi and largely lack political representation. The Indian government has claimed that all Hindus in India are indigenous and the Adivasi are lapsed or "backward" Hindus existing outside of the caste system, some right wing Hindus insist that the Adivasi should be brought back into the Hindu fold.

Adivasi activists claim that development projects happen on their land because they are outside of the political system and can be manipulated. In the main they are subsistence farmers and displacement by development removes their independence and forces them to enter "main stream" society, usually selling their labour for pitiful wages. The SSP Dam benefited from World Bank funding, however, an independent report (the Morse Report) was so critical of the project the treatment of Tribal people that the World Bank withdrew funding in 1993. The Morse Report pointed out that the Narmada Adivasi fulfil all of the World Bank criteria for an indigenous populations and therefore are entitled to the protection granted by the World Bank to Indigenous peoples. The view of developers at the SSP Dam quoted in the Morse report that those in factory-made shirts are "detribalised" was found to be untenable. The World Bank had never before, or has ever since, allowed an independent report into any of the projects they fund.

World leaders try to save Copenhagen climate talks

Copenhagen: World leaders took the stage at the largest ever climate talks on Wednesday as ministers scrambled to rescue troubled negotiations on a pact to avoid dangerous global warming.

Police using truncheons and pepper spray detained 230 people outside the conference centre in Copenhagen as hundreds of protesters demanding tough action on climate change tried to push through barricades, a Reuters reporter said.

Inside, frustration was growing over the lack of progress after nearly two weeks of talks to try to agree on steps by all nations to try to expand or replace the existing Kyoto Protocol.

India's environment minister said the Kyoto pact was in "intensive care" two days before heads of state from around the globe are expected to agree a deal to slow rising temperatures set to cause heat waves, floods, desertification and rising seas. He blamed rich nations for trying to sideline the pact.

A formal summit of more than 120 world leaders will be held on Thursday and Friday to try to break the deadlock on who should cut greenhouse gas emissions, by how much and who should pay.

But some delegates in the main plenary meeting on Wednesday said an agreement was far away.

"Tuvalu is extremely disappointed by the lack of progress on extending the Kyoto Protocol," said Ian Fry. Tuvalu is among the most vulnerable low-lying island states at risk of disappearing as seas rise.

"It's time to save this process," he said. Leaders including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were set to give speeches at the Dec. 7-18 climate meeting, until now dominated by environment ministers.

Combating displacement

CHITTAROOPA PALIT

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            THE last couple of decades have witnessed intense resistance movements challenging large-scale displacement caused, among others, by mines, dams, national parks and sanctuaries, bomb and missile-testing ranges, industry and urban expansion. Since 1986, thousands of affected people have also united to struggle against the mammoth displacement being caused by construction of large dams in the Narmada valley. Adivasi women from the mountains, and women from other communities of the Nimad plains of the Narmada valley, have been at the forefront of this struggle.

            Over the years, as the dams came up, hundreds, sometimes thousands of women marched in the tehsil or district towns of Alirajpur, Badwani, Kukshi, Jhabua, Dhar, Mandleshwar, Khandwa, Dewas, Harda, Jabalpur and Hoshangabad to protest their displacement. They demonstrated at Bhopal, Indore and Delhi to challenge the government and project authorities, and protested at the offices of the World Bank in New Delhi at a time when it was funding the Sardar Sarovar dam, and the US and German embassies in New Delhi whose companies were involved in the Maheshwar project.

            Women took over the offices of Indian financial institutions at Mumbai, Delhi, Bhopal and Bangalore in protest against their involvement in the financing of the Maheshwar project, demanding accountability with regard to the projected benefits and questioning the terms of rehabilitation and resettlement.

            From 1990, Kamludidi, Rukminikaki, Pinjaribai and many other women have braved the rising waters at Manibeli, Jalsindhi and Domkhedi in the Sardar Sarovar catchment. In 2005, at Indira Sagar, Krishnabai, a dalit woman leading other dalit and adivasi women of the area, refused to budge when the waters rose to engulf houses and lands, demanding rehabilitation entitlements. In 2007, under the leadership of Ramkuwar, activist with the movement and herself an adivasi displaced by the Man dam, the villagers affected by the Omkareshwar dam offered satyagraha at Gunjari village, when the Supreme Court permitted the state government to fill the Omkareshwar reservoir.

            In 2002, it was the women and young teenage girls who first confronted police and government officials when they entered the villages affected by the Man dam. Armed with batons, guns and tear-gas shells, the police and the administration had broken down their homes, cut down trees, sealed hand-pumps, bulldozed schools or turned them into police camps, brutally evicting them from villages and unloading them in camps little better than jail. However, the women fought every inch of the way, finally returning to their villages to continue the fight for their rights.

            It was the women more than the men who confronted the police at the barricades, preventing with their bodies the passage of trucks carrying consignments of cement, steel, and other materials that would go into making the dam, despite facing mass arrest, beatings and violence every week. They formed the backbone of the movement, its moral centre.



            The leadership of women in the Maheshwar struggle against the private company S. Kumars, the state government, and US and German capital was substantive and full-bodied. Women were not only at the fore-front of demonstrations and protests, they were at the helm of the decision-making process as well.

            The threat of complete dispossession served to submerge the usual patriarchal prohibition on women coming out of their homes and participating in politics. In many ways the struggle generated a new consciousness. Of course, there were objections, particularly to women using their bodies to barricade the dam, but these were ignored. Therefore, Mohanbhai's advise when he told his wife Annapurna not to block the roads when the police and the company trucks arrived, and to sit in the buses and offer arrest with dignity, was brushed aside. Annapurna and the hundreds of other women who kept vigil for months, continued to link hands, to lie on the roads, and resist being picked up. They were dragged into buses, only to quickly get down again and lie under the wheels, facing lathi-charges and physical violence. Even as their clothes were torn off and jewellery stolen, they continued to peacefully resist.

            Thus, it was only in the context of an impending and wholesale destruction of their areas that large numbers of women emerged from their homes and entered the arena of struggle as protagonists and agents. The intensity of their participation was linked not only to their being affected, but to their identity as women, hitherto subordinated, cloistered and deprived of any full-bodied participation in civic and political affairs. Participation in the struggle changed their lives as they came out of their homes for the first time, and the buoyancy of their un-caged aspirations gave strength, vitality and imagination to the movement.



            The active participation of the women of Maheshwar in the decision-making process was equally the consequence of simultaneously building a separate women's organization in the area – the Narmada Shakti Dal. In its periodic meetings and conferences they shared information, debated strategies and discussed questions with regard to the movement as also larger political and women's issues, helping raise consciousness and build confidence.

            True that even among the core group of village leaders it was not easy to ensure the participation of women at the beginning. Many meetings were cancelled because of the absence of women representatives. Slowly it became a norm, and later a fundamental requirement for the movement, one it could not have done without. As the villagers fought the physical construction of the dam on one hand, and confronted its foreign, and later its public financing on the other, quick decisions had to be made in response to new information, and a positive approach maintained in the face of great odds. It was the women who were responsible for quick and agile decisions and timely action, essential for a struggle against private capital.

            The emergence of women as a combative force was not welcomed either by the private company or the administration. Predictably, they responded through sexual vilification and coercion – planting stories about condoms being found in jails where the villagers had been imprisoned, and asking caste leaders to prohibit the women from taking to the streets and control their 'unseemly' behaviour. The women were angry, but undaunted and unashamed at the scurrilous stories, and challenged newspaper editors and state officials until an apology was forthcoming. The caste leaders were also gently but firmly brushed off.



            It was the women who first saw through the offer of cash compensation, insisting that no displacement was acceptable unless all villagers – landholders and landless alike – were provided alternate land. The men, at least the non-tribal men, their minds hegemonized by authority and the market, neither intrinsically questioned the power of the government to acquire their lands nor the cash compensation offered as a means of dispossessing them of their land and livelihoods.

            Men somehow saw the cash compensation as a trophy or a windfall, not as something that was instrumental in taking away the land which had not only sustained them for generations but would continue to do so had it not been for the displacement. Despite resistance by the women, the cash compensation was often used by men to purchase motorcycles and other consumables. For example, once when the village women of Behgaon affected by the Maheshwar dam were away on a visit to Bargi dam, the men agreed to accept cash compensation. When the women came back, they were upset at what had transpired in their absence. As a result, Parvatibai, the wife of an influential village leader, began a fast against her husband. Finally, on the ninth day, her husband had to give in, breaking the consensus that had been created in the village in favour of cash compensation.



            The implementation of the 'land for land' policy has clearly and repeatedly been articulated as a non-negotiable demand by the displaced women. When the displaced women of the Narmada valley organized public hearings and invited the National Commission for Women (NCW) to review the question of cash compensation and the systematic infringement of the rights of women, this was perceived as a threat by the state government and the project authorities.

            Thus, in 2000, when such a public hearing was announced, a large number of protesting women from Maheshwar were brutally beaten up and arrested. The women were finally released on the directions of the NCW and the public hearing took place, but only after Syeda Hamid, a member of the NCW dodged state government vehicles that attempted to block her way. The next hearing of the NCW in 2004 against cash compensation was scuttled by the state government and Section 144 declared overnight. Nevertheless, hundreds of dam affected women met in violation of government orders.

            The village women were not only clear about the consequences of accepting cash compensation, but took the protest forward when all possibilities seemed exhausted. For example, when the numerous dharnas at the dam site failed to elicit any response, the women persuaded the villagers not to leave the jails. As a result, hundreds of dam oustees placed in five different jails of Madhya Pradesh refused to leave until their questions were answered, greatly embarrassing the government.

            A new politics of direct resistance gradually began to take shape – of challenge rather than supplication and patronage. This confidence of the women also spilled into many other issues, big and small – challenging power sector reforms, facing up to violent sand mafia elements seeking to control village riverine resources, and so on.



            Soon after the evictions of Harsud, the NBA decided to extend support to the oustees of the Indira Sagar area. A rally was organized in New Harsud where several thousand people had been unceremoniously dumped during the middle of the monsoon without drinking water, no access roads, public transport or even levelled house-plots. It was the first time that people of the Indira Sagar dam raised their voice against the callousness meted out to them. At the rally we repeatedly emphasized that poor people, especially women, were the central focus of the Narmada Bachao Andolan. No wonder, the next day, at the first of the many camps that we held in New Harsud to help villagers communicate their grievances to the appropriate authorities, we found a majority were women – single, deserted, unmarried, divorced or widows.

            We soon realized that what attracted them was not the pro-women slant of the NBA, but the systematic violation of the rights and entitlements of all categories of women oustees. Their need for an organization was not a response to our desire to work with women, but drew on the material context of the wholesale infringement of their rights by the project authorities. Of course, they were happy to find an organization where they could find voice.



            We learnt that in cases where the head of the household was a widowed woman, the names of the mother and adult daughters living in the house were excluded from the ownership of the house, invariably shown only in the name of the adult sons. This was clearly against the law because after the death of a man his property devolves in the name of both his wife and adult children. However, as the titles of houses are not formally registered in the rural areas, the ownership rights were not documented. The house-owners, mostly non-literate, rarely objected since they did not know in what manner the project authorities were documenting their rights. In not showing the mothers as heads of the household and owners of property, they were not only denied their share of compensation, but were also shown as 'dependants' in the family list, and thereby denied all R&R grants and entitlements due to each displaced family.

            The definition of 'displaced family' in the rehabilitation policy for the Narmada oustees includes husband, wife, minor children and other dependants, e.g., widowed mother, widowed sister, etc. As a result, all mothers, widows, deserted or separated women who had come back to live in the natal village, or women whose husbands live with them in their natal village, were treated as 'dependants', even if the reality was that each of these women worked for a living and could not depend on any relative, seeking only the familiarity of the natal village for shelter and work. The non-recognition as a separate family meant that they were denied the rights and entitlements due to each family. Since the number of such single-women headed households is very large, one can well imagine the scale of the problem, and the consequent distress of women forced to start their life afresh at a new place with absolutely nothing in hand. The distress of these women further increased if BPL ration cards or welfare pension or other entitlements they received in the earlier village were not renewed after dislocation.

            Thus, even when women owned property, they were deliberately and wilfully denied property rights and concomitant rehabilitation entitlements. In the absence of property rights, women heading households, whether as widowed, deserted, or separated women, were denied the status of a separate family and all R&R entitlements by labelling them as 'dependants'.



            The same bias exists in the case of women mazdoors. An NBA survey of sand quarry workers in Maheshwar dam area yielded some 6000 workers. However, in the next detailed survey, the numbers were down to 4000 workers. On being asked the reason for the decline, the surveyors stated that wherever a married couple worked together, the woman was excluded in order to assess the number of displaced families. And this was our survey – of a people's organization!

            Thus it is clear that the provision of a R&R grant to enable purchase of productive assets for each landless displaced 'family' discriminates against landless workers whose individual labour and employment (and not family assets as in the case of land-holders) are affected by the submergence. Given the bias against women, this completely discriminates against women workers who are excluded from assistance in lieu of their lost employment.



            In a majority of cases displacement has resulted in homelessness, loss of livelihood and pauperization. Land-holders who were able to support their families, or landless families who lived on the common resources of the village and worked on land as wage workers or artisans lost their employment. Even in the Narmada valley, despite the existence of a rehabilitation policy, the government data for the amount of land that landholders could purchase after displacement for both Omkareshwar and Indira Sagar dams is a mere 11%. If only 11% lands could be repurchased by the land-holders, the state of landless families can well be imagined.

            Many families are unable to build a home and literally find themselves on the streets. A majority of the urban poor in India are those displaced from the rural areas, moving from place to place to earn a living. The impact of homelessness and pauperization on women who are food-providers in the present gender division of labour, and who also look after the children, can only be imagined. Violence in the family exacerbates in a situation of penury and in many cases women take recourse to prostitution to make ends meet. In New Harsud, after the people had built their homes, and the compensation amount was exhausted, with no livelihood and nothing to eat, people either migrated or faced the prospect of starvation. Seventy year old Parvatibai remarked that, 'I'm too old, otherwise I would have sold myself.' Similarly, after Harsud was broken down, girl children were taken out of schools. Family resources went into purchase of cycles for the sons, if possible, so they could attend the more distant schools.



            The movements against displacement in India are characterized by the large-scale participation of women. In what is widely perceived as a struggle for survival, patriarchal norms are temporarily weakened, enabling women to come out of their homes and to raise their voices. Wherever there is repression, women are in the forefront, unfazed by the fear of authority and calculations of consequences. Women are also able to see the pittance of the package offered for what it is, and make the crucial distinction between natural resources necessary for dignified and productive livelihoods. They also recognize that any cash compensation will invariably be undervalued and structured to work against them.

            In order that the participation of women in the struggle does not remain confined to facing police repression, forming the fearless but disciplined core of protests, or throwing up a few remarkable women as icons, it is important that they be made a meaningful part of the formal decision-making processes and organizations. This can happen only by repeated and conscious interventions by the leadership. This process of ideological development, information sharing and decision-making gains strength if there is a separate women's organization.

            The experience of displacement in India is homelessness and pauperization for the majority, with displaced families unable to replace either their homes or the resources they had for their livelihoods or employment. The burden of this homelessness and pauperization falls primarily on the women, in the present gender division of labour. Starvation, deprivation, disease, death of children and the psychological impact of not being able to cope, given the lack of resources, as also increased violence on women from members of the family, invariably follows displacement. Sometimes they are forced to commodify themselves in a variety of ways, from having to provide sexual favours in order to receive their entitlements to actual sex work, in the absence of any alterative livelihood.

            Women face state repression not only when offering resistance to displacement but even more so later. In fact the state and its partners behave as an occupying force. The process of compulsory acquisition and the large-scale transfer of resources from the rural poor to the corporates is more like a war, based as it is on the colonial provision of eminent domain. The rulers appear clear that the resource transfer is essential for the success of the programme, even if it leaves the victims financially, physically and morally defeated. Where people are united, and especially where women are at the forefront, the attempt of the state to crush the people in spirit as well as in body, is severely challenged. This aspect is central to the success of the resistance. That is also why women and their bodies are special targets of violence and the appropriation of their lands is most often accompanied by rape/sexual violence.
   The women of the Narmada valley also initiated and participated in the struggle against power sector reforms in Madhya Pradesh resulting in increased power tariffs to satisfy the loan conditionalities imposed by the ADB and DFID. When people outside the displaced zone asked the Narmada struggle for support to combat anti-farmer measures, the Nimad Malwa Kisan Mazdoor Sanghatan gave the slogan of Videshi gulami nahi sahenge, Bill nahi jail bharenge. The resistance soon spread to as many as 800 villages.

            The initial mobilization in the non-submergence zone villages on the issue of the power sector were spearheaded by the Maheshwar dam affected women. Naturally, during their tours, they spoke to the women. On their advice, the women collectively resisted the removal of the DPs and so were able to retain their electricity connections. Nobody felt the need to consult men whether in the submergence or non-submergence villages. Similarly, when the first farmer's suicides took place in Nimad, women took the lead in investigating and publicizing the issue.



            The need to look at all the issues of injustice together rather than in isolation was best expressed by Kamlabai of the Maheshwar area, who said, 'Can the displacement issue be resolved in exclusion of the farmer's issues and other issues? In the struggle for freedom it was mostly men who were sent to the gallows. It is my dream that this time it will be us women who will be at the forefront and face the gallows.'

            At a women's meeting on the WTO, the crisis of farming and farmer's suicides, a landless woman pointed out that: 'Today we are talking about kisani, and we must do something about it. But remember, we must also do something about mazdoors and mazdoori. I'm not saying that it should be done today, but the issue has to be addressed.'

            The different aspirations of women jostle with each other for time and space – the aspiration of the woman qua woman, of the woman farmer facing power sector reforms, adverse terms of credit and adverse terms of trade in agriculture, and the aspiration of the woman worker whose expectations are with regard to shelter, dignity, and availability and adequacy of mazdoori. The struggles for displacement need to respond to each aspiration.

            With the intensification of resource alienation, and large-scale land acquisition and displacement, millions of women and men are likely to be uprooted from their homes, lands and villages. Narmada, Baliapal, Netarhat, and many other sites where the struggles began more than two decades ago, as also Nandigram, Kalinganagar, Posco and Singur more recently, show that this displacement will be actively resisted. Thus, in the coming years, large numbers of women will take to the streets, braving police repression, rape and violence. The women's movement will have to respond to this.



            Both individual women and feminist groups have been an important source of support to struggles against displacement all over India, especially in the Narmada valley. However, the coordination has been sporadic, based more on the immediate needs of the local struggle. If only it is understood that the movement of women against displacement is the women's movement, or a significant part of it, then the coming together will be more meaningful and enrich the displacement virodhi movement-building in feminist theory and practice, as well as strengthen and broaden its the sweep.

            The task of generating theory and practice and movement building – whether relating to imperialism, issues of the landless, or addressing patriarchy and women's rights – has acquired a new urgency. Displacement movements, often single issue movements, find it hard to cope with these tasks. It will require the coming together of all these various struggles/movements if we are to resist the continuing dispossession of the majority.
http://www.india-seminar.com/2008/583/583_chittaroopa_palit.htm

Adivasis — the forgotten India

Most of the time, Adivasis are obscured from "mainstream" India. They come into focus momentarily when they organise, resist and assert their rights. Kalpana Sharma on their plight.

The brutal might of the state was in full display at Muthanga.

TWO HOURS outside Mumbai, India's burgeoning and prosperous commercial capital, there are people who have no electricity, running water, health care or education. Here children die of malaria, measles and diarrhoea, women die during childbirth. In 55 years, they have seen little progress even as Mumbai strives to become a global city.

The lives of the Adivasis living in the megalopolis' shadow is a stark illustration of the continuing neglect of tribal communities in most parts of India. If anything illustrates unequal development, it is the way the Governments, at the Centre and in the States, have dealt with these islands of neglect.

Most of the time, Adivasis are obscured from "mainstream" India. They come into focus momentarily when they organise, resist and assert their rights, as they have done most recently in Kerala. The rest of the country suddenly wakes up and looks at them. But the look is no more than a glance, and soon they become invisible again.

Whether in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka or Kerala, the struggle of tribal communities for their rights is inextricably linked to land and forests.

And their story dates back to the colonial times when the British either handed over their land to zamindars or declared it as forestland.

People who had survived for generations without the need to document "ownership" of land — or indeed, without even the concept of "ownership" — found they had no tools to combat this new twist to "development".

Most of the earlier laws relating to forests were designed to exploit forest resources for urban and other markets even as they allowed the Adivasis to continue to live within them.

The Forest Act of 1865, later amended in 1878, divided forests into Revenue, Protected and Village forests, each with their set of rules. But for the people who lived in the forest, these laws essentially overturned their unstructured, undocumented and "symbiotic", in the words of B. K. Roy Burman, relationship with the land, the rivers and the forests.

Inevitably, in the post-Independence period, what began as minor skirmishes between groups of forest dwellers and those assigned the task of "protecting" forests escalated into mini-wars in different parts of India.

The issues remain the same: do people who have lived in and tended forests and the land on which they stand, have a right to continue living there or not? They do not, holds the Government, because this is "forest land" which must be conserved for larger ecological reasons. They do, hold the forest dwellers, because they have no other source of livelihood apart from the subsistence agriculture and sale of minor forest produce.

Although forest policies over time have been modified and amended to concede the rights of the forest dwellers, in practice the Adivasis have to struggle to establish even the rights they have been granted under the law. Thus, many of the conflicts that have arisen between the Adivasis and the Forest Department centre around the issue of access to "protected" forests. Where the Adivasis are organised, they have successfully negotiated these rights and guaranteed their access to forests.

Where they remain isolated, as they still do in many parts of the country, they have no means to battle the forest bureaucracy.

The people versus forests saga has been extended with the creation of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, areas that are considered essential if we are to conserve our biodiversity in flora and fauna.

Yet, these are the very areas where Adivasis have lived for generations. According to one estimate, of the 600,000 people displaced by 421 sanctuaries and 75 national parks, 500,000 are Adivasis.

In States such as Karnataka and Kerala, much of the tension between the Government and groups of Adivasis has revolved around the question of displacement caused by these sanctuaries and parks.

Apart from forests, the other development aspect that has been a huge blow to the ability of the Adivasis to continue living in their own environment has been the construction of large dams. Inevitably, the largest number of those displaced are Adivasis because dams are built on rivers that run through the forest areas where they live.

In the case of the Sardar Sarovar dam, this has been amply documented but the story is not very different for a number of other dams around which there have been struggles of resistance.

In the last two years in Bihar and Jharkhand there have been clashes between the police and groups of Adivasis resisting dams and the inevitable submergence of their villages and the forests on which they depend. In all these confrontations, people have been killed and injured and locked up for days. During the struggle against the Koel Karo dam, the police fired on an assembly of Adivasis in February 2001, killing eight persons. In Jharkhand, ironically a State carved out of Bihar to meet the aspirations of tribal communities, there has been a long-standing non-violent protest against the dam on the Subarnarekha river in west Singhbhum district. An estimated 5,000 families were to be displaced and 52 villages partially or wholly submerged. The Adivasis are agitating against further raising the height of the dam.

The latest manifestation of such resistance is the occupation by 150 Adivasis of the Narmada Valley Development Authority in Alirajpur, Jhabua district, Madhya Pradesh.

According to the Narmada Bachao Andolan, "the Adivasis have been facing submergence since 1994, with last year's submergence being the most severe. More than 220 acres of standing crops were submerged by the submergence caused by raising the height of the dam from 90m to 95m in May. While they face such illegal submergence year after year, the Narmada Valley Development Authority and the Government have claimed all along that they have been rehabilitated! In fact, on paper these villages do not exist nor do the Adivasis".

Another arena for struggle is over the land being taken over for mining. In Rayagada, Orissa, on December 16, 2000, four persons were killed and 50 injured in police firing when Adivasis raised an objection to the extraction of bauxite from the Bapilimali hills by the Utkal Aluminium Industries.

In all such instances, land is acquired by the Government for mining operations but the Adivasis living on it are not adequately compensated. Inevitably, the inability of most Adivasis to establish ownership through the documentation demanded by the Government results in their becoming landless labourers.

Similarly, in Chhattisgarh in May 2001, the National Mineral Development Corporation sought to establish a steel mill at Nagarnar. When the Adivasis living on the land acquired by the Government for this purpose objected and resisted, the state responded with force. Hundreds of Adivasis were arrested and many were injured.

A landmark judgment on the question of mining in Scheduled Areas was delivered by the Supreme Court in 1997 in the Samatha v State of Andhra Pradesh case.

The Court held that the Government had no power to grant mining leases for tribal lands in Scheduled Areas. It also ordered the State Government to grant pattas to people living on the land which was to be mined. This was an important precedent as under the law, all minerals under the land belong to the Government, but the rights of the Adivasis living on the land was a grey area.

Despite the ruling, however, the Andhra Pradesh Government did not issue the pattas on the pretext that the particular panchayat was part of a border dispute with neighbouring Orissa.

However, when the Adivasis once again went to court and asked why pattas could not be issued when elections could be held in their villages despite the border dispute, the Andhra Pradesh High Court gave a ruling on January 9, 2003, "directing the respondents to entertain the applications made by the petitioners and other members belonging to Scheduled Tribes for grant of pattas and consider those applications with utmost expedience for grant of pattas in the revenue enclosures which are identified by the Revenue Department within four months from today".

These are but a few recent instances of the clash between the Adivasis and various State Governments. They illustrate the conflict over rights and resources that lies at the root of the confrontation.

Such clashes are bound to escalate as "development" reaches out to remoter areas, places which are inevitably the home of Adivasi groups that have lived undisturbed, and ignored, for generations.

Finding a way to resolve these differences is urgent, not just for the sake of the Adivasis, but also because a model of development that pays no heed to the most vulnerable, and forces them into penury, cannot be sustained in the long run.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/03/09/stories/2003030900261600.htm

Large Dams In India -- Temples Or Burial Grounds?
Large Dams In India -- Temples Or Burial Grounds?

September 21, 2004 By Angana Chatterji

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How do we measure progress? How are lives improved by progress? Who benefits from -- and who suffers the consequences of -- progress?

These are central questions today as nation-states and corporations pursue what are typically called "development" projects. One of the most controversial of these in recent years is a series of more than 3,000 dams in India's Narmada River Valley. Government officials say these dams and an extensive irrigation system will bring electricity and water to areas of the country suffering from drought, and the technocrats insist that it will work.

But other voices challenge this rhetoric of technological triumph, most notably the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement). Arguing that the government exaggerates the benefits and underestimates the costs, this nonviolent people's movement since the mid-1980s has focused attention on the human suffering and environmental damage that comes with "big dams." These dams flood vast areas and displace hundreds of thousands, mostly peasants and adivasi (tribal) people, while promises of relocation and resources usually prove to be illusory. Just one of the dams, Sardar Sarovar, could uproot as many as a half-million people.

In August 2004, Angana Chatterji was one of three members of an independent commission who went to the Narmada, visiting villages and listening to more than 1,400 people at hearings. The commission investigated violations in resettlement and rehabilitation policies connected to the Narmada Sagar, one of the Narmada dams. Chatterji, N.C. Saxena (a member of the Indian government's National Advisory Council and former secretary of the Planning Commission of India), and Harsh Mander (former director of ActionAid India) will submit their report this fall to the National Advisory Council, headed by Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi.

Chatterji, a Calcutta-born anthropology professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, described the situation in the Narmada Valley as desperate and cited one villager's statement to sum up the sense of despair: "There is no future here; we are living out our days, focused on survival. The Narmada gave us life; they have turned her against us."

Despite the setbacks, Chatterji not only continues but intensifies her advocacy work through her association with the Narmada Bachao Andolan and groups such as the U.S.-based International Rivers Network (http://www.irn.org/), for which she is a board member. Chatterji is passionate and sharp-tongued, with an ability to bring the complex issues into clear, and sometimes painful, focus. In a play on an often-quoted comment of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Chatterji began our conversation by saying, "Dams are not the temples of India. They are her burial grounds." In an interview in September, she explained why the Narmada struggle remains crucial.

Robert Jensen: Before we talk about specifics of the Narmada project, explain the larger context. What's at stake?

Angana Chatterji: Adivasi and peasant movements reject the assumption that development justifies cultural annihilation. Since 1947, 4,300 large dams alone in India have displaced over 42 million. Adivasis are about 8 percent of India's population but more than 40 percent of the country's displaced. India's record of irresponsible development has placed its most vulnerable in peril -- 1,000 more dams are being built, even as food, security, and self-determination remain out of reach for 350 million of India's poorest citizens. In postcolonial India, the promise of progress, of freedom, has been linked to techno-economic control by the state, which provides a comfortable life for its elite. But the disenfranchised experience this development as a war against them. Their lands and livelihood have become collateral for the dreams of the privileged.

In the Narmada Valley, different imaginations of nation building collide. The confrontation with state-sponsored big development leaves marginalized people voiceless in decision-making, as local dreams of self-determination and survival, of respect, heritage and history, are jettisoned. The key questions remain: Whose lives matters? Who has a right to life? The Narmada struggle leads us to ask: What good is a nation if it refuses to protect all its citizens?

RJ: Let's start with the question of water in India. Advocates of big dam projects say they are the only way to provide the water needed to help regions facing droughts.

AC: Droughts are a harsh reality, and the need for water is immense. India needs to provide water to the fields, villages, towns and industries throughout the year, without placing some communities at risk to benefit others. It needs cost-effective and environmentally responsible technologies for water and power. Rajender Singh's work in watershed management (http://www.tarunbharatsangh.com/about/rs.htm) exemplifies a bioregional approach that is ethical in scale, and there are other options. Their success will depend on the inclusion of local knowledge, participation, and ownership, and the nation's capacity to ensure the rights of the poor. The Narmada dam projects proceed in exactly the opposite way.

RJ: Explain the scope of the project.

AC: The Narmada project was first broached in the 19th century. The Narmada Valley Development Plan, formulated in the late 1980s, decided that the river -- 1,312 kilometers through the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat -- and her tributaries would be the site of 30 large, 135 medium and 3,000 small dams. These dams would turn the river into a sad series of lakes, devastating the lives and livelihood of 20 million peasants and adivasis who call the Narmada watershed home, whose subsistence is linked to their land, forests, and water.

RJ: One of the most controversial of these many dams is Sardar Sarovar. Why?

AC: Sardar Sarovar is one of two gigantic dams expected to irrigate 5 million acres of land, generate 1,450 megawatts of power, and supply water to 8,000 villages and 135 towns through the Mahi pipeline in Gujarat. Like many assertions of the Indian government, these are highly controversial claims. The Sardar Sarovar will cost about $10 billion, almost half the irrigation budget of India since independence. The 133-mile-long reservoir of the Sardar Sarovar will flood 91,000 acres of land, 28,000 acres of which are forest. The canal network will mangle another 200,000 acres. The reservoir will displace 200,000 people, most forcibly, and affect another 200,000. More than 1 million lives will be decimated if the project is carried out. About 56 percent of those affected will be adivasi people, the familiar victims of "progress" -- 15.4 million adivasis live in Madhya Pradesh alone, from over 40 tribes.

In the Narmada Valley, people are under siege. Stranded, eliminated. Displaced. Put out of place. Without place. Displacement's violence plunges people into unfamiliar worlds over which they have no control. When cultures die, languages, memories, spiritualities, ways of being and caring for the earth die with them. Adivasi and peasant cultures of the Narmada Valley are expected to join this death. The displaced are expected to vanish into the crevices of city slums or resettlement colonies, to become -- quietly -- a statistic. Unable to raise families, crops or livestock, build homes, send children to school. They are unable to dream any other life but that of righteous resistance. Their burden is to be the conscience abdicated by the state.

RJ: There was an attempt to limit the height of the Sardar Sarovar. What happened?

AC: Following a petition by the Narmada Bachao Andolan in1995, the Supreme Court of India limited construction of the dam to 80.3 meters. Since 1999, the Court has allowed successive jumps, even as it upheld the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award, mandating land-for-land rehabilitation of impacted families six months prior to any increase in dam height. This was never enforced. Resettlement and rehabilitation is yet to be completed at the 85 meters level. Officials in New Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have remained silent. Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat who was complicit in the murder of 2,000 Muslims in the state in 2002, has used the dam's apparent "success" to deflect attention from that carnage.

Today the dam stands at 110.64 meters. As the dam rises, the reservoir grows in size and more villages are submerged. On Sept. 9, 2004, the Narmada Control Authority met in New Delhi to explore the possibility of raising the Sardar Sarovar to 121 meters. Perhaps the plan is to erect the dam to the original height of 138 meters!

India is intent on building large dams even as other nations decommission them. As the government deliberates "national interest," people are fleeing back to their villages from rehabilitation sites, which are devoid of facilities and livelihood opportunities. In response, earlier this month, the police torched adivasi homes in Vadgam village in Gujarat, warning that if others attempted to return to their original homes they would be met with similar brutality.

RJ: The World Bank provided financing for the project but later withdrew. Does it have any role today?

AC: Yes it does. In 1985, the World Bank approved $450 million for the Sardar Sarovar project, and construction began in 1987. The Indian government violated the loan and credit agreements, and in June 1992 the Morse Commission charged the project with grievous flaws in resettlement and rehabilitation, and environmental impact. International activism led to the Bank's withdrawal in 1993 and cancellation of the remaining $170 million loan amount.

That existing project loan will not be repaid until 2005, and the terms of the loan are still legally binding. But Bank management failed to supervise the project with respect to the environmental and social conditionalities of the loan. The Bank's India country director has confirmed that the Bank generally does not monitor projects beyond the disbursement of capital to the borrower. This approach neglects the terms for resettlement and other policies supposed to alleviate the long-standing impacts of Bank-financed projects. By failing to ensure that funds are being used in compliance with the conditions of the loan, the Bank is abandoning its responsibilities, ignoring its commitment to mitigating poverty. (For more, see http://counterpunch.org/jensen04222004.html)

The World Bank has, through its negligence, endorsed the Indian government's decision to increase the dam height. The Bank's acceptance of forcible displacement and inadequate resettlement and rehabilitation violates its own policies, as well as international agreements on livelihood security and human rights affecting the poor. The Bank remains arrogant, as a recent report by the International Rivers Network demonstrates, planning a defiant return to financing high-risk infrastructure projects that allow governments and corporations to marginalize civil society in decision-making. (http://www.irn.org/programs/finance/wb_at_60.pdf)

RJ: In August you and the other commissioners visited some of the communities affected by the Narmada Sagar Dam. What did you learn?

AC: The Narmada Sagar (formally called the Indira Sagar Pariyojana) is the second mega-dam, a multipurpose project under construction for decades. We spent time with people from 10 villages, a town and seven resettlement colonies, listening to testimonials of egregious human-rights violations. Some came from Gulas, Abhera, Jabgaon, Nagpur -- places that only exist in the register of dead settlements.

The Narmada Sagar is upstream from Sardar Sarovar in east Nimar in Madhya Pradesh. When completed, at 92 meters, 262.19 meters above sea level, it will create the largest reservoir in Asia. The dam is failing to generate the electricity promised. The numbers here are also staggering: It will submerge 249 villages, displace 30,739 families. The dam will destroy 91,348 hectares of land (41,444 hectares of which are forests), to irrigate 123,000 hectares of land, a quarter of which is already irrigated! The resettlement and rehabilitation policy includes a land-for-land clause. But even in its present and inadequate form, these provisions are being systematically violated.

RJ: Say more about the experience of the people being displaced?

AC: In the past few months, bulldozers have razed homes in Khandwa district, and people's belongings were dragged out and damaged. Police camps are up and running in resettlement sites, terrorizing citizens. Activists told us that if they protest, the police beat them and threaten families. One resident, Atma Ram, said: "We are like waste to the government. You do not rehabilitate waste, you bury it. Our town and souls are being buried. We have appealed to the government, to the courts, to the country. Our pleas are thrown away. We are left to decay."

Harsud town was destroyed on July 1, 2004. In her testimonial, Sunder Bai, an elderly woman, said: "They stood there, the guards, and ordered me to tear down my home. It felt like my bones were breaking." Many Harsud residents won't leave, believing that the town will not be submerged for another year or two. The authorities accuse people of getting in the way of their own rehabilitation. But Laloo Bhai, in whose house I stayed, said: "Where will we go? We have lived here for generations. Here I am somebody. When something happens, people come and stand by us. Elsewhere, we are nothing."

Harsud is partly vacated, partly living. From Laloo Bhai's house I could see the neighbours courtyard -- a heap of bricks, scattered with the remnants of life, a child's toy, a fragment of a brightly coloured sari, a painted window trim, things of meaning, now lifeless in the ruins of a 700-year-old town.

RJ: So, it's not just a question of being compensated for houses and land lost?

AC: The struggle to force the government to meet its obligations for resettlement is important. The Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award requires the government to provide a minimum of 2 hectares of irrigated land to all those classified as landed and adequate cash compensation to others. This has not happened for the 85 villages submerged in 2002-03, and 32 expected to submerge this year. Construction of the remaining 16 of 20 gates to be built must be stopped until the 132 villages awaiting submergence are rehabilitated. Cash compensation -- 40,000 rupees for non-irrigated, 60,000 rupees for irrigated land -- is inadequate to purchase new land, and people have often not been given the authorized sum. In the absence of livelihood opportunities, the money withers away quickly, leaving people destitute. They resort to middlemen and loan sharks, to alcohol.

The landless are not being provided agricultural land; displacement leaves them impoverished without access to livelihood resources. Laborers are not provided livelihood opportunities. Seasonal migrants are often not included in compensatory schemes. In many instances people are waiting for compensation checks, while others aren't allowed access to their money even when it has reached the bank. Women have not been listed as co-title holders to new land. Widows and divorcees are excluded. The affected have filed a case with the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Submerging land owned by the government is not being assessed for the livelihood resources that these lands (such as forests) provide the disenfranchised -- grazing for livestock, fruit, firewood and other sustenance.

The violence of the everyday defies comprehension, as the state's mistreatment of the poor is intensified by hierarchies of caste, tribe, religion, and gender. At the core of the resistance is a desire to protect a way of life. On Sept. 28, 1989, I was in Harsud at the rally of 30,000 people, as the town echoed with, "Kohi nahin hate ga, bandh nahin banega" (No one will move, the dam will not be built). That cry reverberated across the Narmada Valley, as village upon village committed to the resistance. This summer, what I saw in Harsud was the destruction of lives and futures, without consent.

RJ: What are resettlement sites like?

AC: Chanera, a resettlement site with rows of houses in a desolate location, was like a prison complex, a place of exile. There is no water, electricity, roads, sewers, bazaars or health care. There is a temporary school with no teachers. Some homes have already crumbled. A makeshift shelter of a few tin sheets and saris stretched into fragile walls threatens to collapse at the hint of rain. I met a young woman whose husband had died, caught in the open electrical wires that run parallel to their home. She is left alone to care for her children, and the authorities refuse to accept responsibility for his death. In this "new Harsud" there is no employment. Many wealthy citizens have moved to distant places -- Indore, Gwalior, Bhopal, Udaipur. The resettlement camp is populated primarily by the economically disenfranchised, making it easy for the authorities to dismiss their concerns.

A mother of three told us: "What shall I do? I received 25,000 rupees and no land. I was forced out of Harsud. My adult sons were listed as minors. They are 23 and 25. They did not receive land or money. I showed authorities ration cards, voter identification. They ignored us. I am alone. My husband left a long time ago. How will I survive? I was a mazdoor (wage laborer). In Harsud I paid 300 rupees rent. Here I have to pay 700. I have been using the compensation money to live. It will run out very soon. After that?"

RJ: Was what happened to Harsud unusual?

AC: The surrounding villages also are devastated. In Barud half the village is waiting to sink during these monsoons, with the rest taken apart by a railway line that was shifted due to the submergence. Residents have been told that they are not entitled to land compensation. In Jhinghad, people were informed that the village would partially submerge. Half its residents were ordered out, many others left in fear. We stopped at Bangarda and visited a man whose house caved, injuring and leaving him bedridden. A woman said that she contemplates suicide. A Gond adivasi elder said: "I am landless, so they said they are not responsible. My sons are far away. I am old and very poor. My wife passed away. They have given me nothing." So many faces etched with anger and sadness. Parbati Bai's voice echoes: "There is no future here; we are living out our days, focused on survival. The Narmada gave us life; they have turned her against us."

National dreams and global capital have created incredible suffering and destroyed not just human life, not just part of our cultural heritage, but also the natural heritage of the Valley. It is cruel and criminal. We drove to Purni, beyond which the land is engulfed by an infinite stretch of gloomy water. Narmada Sagar exemplifies the violence of nation-making in India today -- a demonic, calculated rush for homogenized, unsustainable futures. This is what cultural genocide looks like.

RJ: Is the movement to resist these dam projects essentially over?

AC: No. The Narmada Bachao Andolan continues mobilizing people to dissent. The Narmada people and allied activists hold the struggle together in its diversity. Their work is incomprehensible to most of us. In 1991, Medha Patkar undertook a 21-day fast. In Maan, one of the 30 large dams, Ram Kunwar, Chittaroopa Palit, Vinod Patwa and Mangat Verma assumed a 29-day hunger strike in 2002. In Sardar Sarovar, Medha and other activists continue unrelenting resistance (http://www.alternet.org/story/17954). In Narmada Sagar, Chittaroopa Palit and Alok Agarwal travel from village through devastated village, day after long day, seeking to collectivize the struggle. It is an unyielding commitment to justice, to holding the state accountable. Chittaroopa emphasizes that the right to life here is linked intimately to the right to land, to the survival of cropping patterns, water rights, food and shelter. Land is critical to the capacity of these cultures to endure.

These are desperate times in the Valley. But that is testimony to the failure of the state, not the movement. As we left Khandwa, the echo of, "Hum sabh ek hein" (We are all one) and "Jete raho, sangharsh karo" (Keep living, continue struggling) followed us. The resistance lives. As with any struggle against institutionalized power, there is no quick fix.

RJ: What can people do?

AC: Visit the Valley, if you are able. Be in solidarity. Protest if your city has invested in World Bank bonds. The Friends of River Narmada (http://www.narmada.org/) and the Association for India's Development (http://www.aidindia.org/) list actions available to us.

RJ: What would you say to people who ask why we should continue to have hope?

AC:The Indian state acts with impunity, replacing the British imperial colonizer, inheriting and regularizing injustice. Conditions of inequity fuel social suffering across India, disproportionately acted out on the bodies of women, adivasis and disenfranchised caste groups. Why we should hope in the face of that? Because we must. The struggles for justice across the world that link us together are the only means to produce equity. Freedom is an ongoing practice, something we work for.

Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of "Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity." He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/7817

NBA Press Note

   March 25, 2001

Save The Narmada, Save Humanity!

NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
Jail Road, Mandleshwar
District Khargone, Madhya Pradesh
Tel: 07283-33162
Email: nobigdam@vsnl.com
False charges of atrocities on adivasis filed on those fighting for the rights of adivasis!
Will anyone in this country listen to what the President has to say?

The atrocities and harassment by the State has been increasing ever since the adivasis affected by the Man project raised their voice in protest and captured the dam site on the 21st of March. Smt Chittaroopa Palit, senior activist of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, who has been organizing the project-affected people, who are predominantly adivasis, for the last 4 years, along with few others have been falsely charged for atrocities on adivasis. The police have also raked up about 10 old cases filed against Chittaroopa Palit and many of the Maheshwar project affected people who are here in solidarity with the Man affected adivasis, and arrested them in jail for the old cases. Narmada Bachao Andolan believes that the filing of cases of atrocities on adivasis is not only terribly shameful but also demonstrates the desperation of the State.

Today is the fifth day in jail for those Man project affected people who were arrested on 21st of March. More than 90% of those arrested are adivasis. Chittaroopa Palit and few others, who along with the adivasis have been raising serious question regarding the rehabilitation of the affected people for the past few years, have been charged for atrocities on adivasis. This act of the State clearly establishes the misuse of power by the State and the depths of shamefulness to which they can drop to try and silence the voices demanding justice. The fact, however, is that the State is guilty of atrocities on adivasis considering that this monsoon 4000-5000 adivasis are slated for submergence without any rehabilitation having been done. This inspite of the fact that the government has passed official orders entitling the affected people to agricultural land in rehabilitation, while the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award clearly states that under no circumstances can lands being submerged without rehabilitation having been done. Would this not make a good case of atrocities on adivasis, and, should the State not be charged on such grounds?

It is pertinent to note that there exists special provisions in the Constitution and precise rehabilitation provisions to safeguard the interests of adivasis. It is clearly stated in the rehabilitation policy that the affected adivasis are entitled to agricultural land for their land that is being submerged and also community rehabilitation i.e. entire village rehabilitated in one place to maintain their social fabric. It is also stated in the policy that cash compensation can only be given to that project affected person who makes an application for the same personally. But if this affected person is an adivasis, then the Collector must issue a certificate stating that cash compensation will not be detrimental to the future of this adivasi. In 1990-91 few adivasis were coerced and threatened into accepting small amounts of cash compensation. At that time, not a single adivasi submitted the needed application requesting cash compensation nor did the Collector issue any certificate saying that this cash compensation is detrimental to him/her. Should not the Collector be immediately charged for atrocities on adivasis considering the above facts?

Even the President of India, Shri K.R. Narayanan has expressed deep concern about the displacement of adivasis in `developmental' projects. This year, on Republic Day, the President stated,

    "But the march of development is having different kinds of impact on different sections of our people. It tends to widen the existing inequalities and create new inequalities ... It is well known how the large valley projects are uprooting the tribals and causing them untold misery ... When they have to be displaced, the resettlement schemes should be discussed with them and implemented with sincerity ... Let it not be said by future generations that the Indian Republic has been built on the destruction of the green earth and the innocent tribals who have been living there for centuries ... let it not be said of India that this great Republic in a hurry to develop itself is devastating the green mother earth and uprooting our tribal populations ...".

Using these strong words, voicing his deep concerns, the President of our country has taken a clear stand against the indiscriminate displacement of adivasis without even resettling them. However, in Man project, the affected adivasis are facing imminent submergence and displacement without any of the rehabilitation provisions being followed. Will anyone listen to at least our President in this country?

The India Country Study, a chapter done by the World Commission on Dams, has reported that post-independence about 56 million people have been displaced by dam projects and out of these people about 60%-70% are adivasis. This is a very disproportionate representation of adivasis in the population of displaced people considering that they account for only 8% of out country's population. The displacement seems un-necessary in the face of the fact that large dams account for only 10% of the foodgrains produced in our country!

Eminent people, Peoples organizations and others from different corners of the country have written protest letters to Shri Digvijay Singh. Retired Justice Shri. Ravi Kumar Jain, Advocate in the Supreme Court Shri Rajeev Shukla, Ex-Commissioner of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Tribes Shri B.D. Sharma, Socialist leader Shri Surendra Mohan and Shri Kiskan Patnayak, National Secretary of `Lok Swatantr Sanghatan' Shri Rajendra Sayal, Shri Praful Bidwai, Shri S.P. Shukla, Shri Dr. Sunilam among others have written to Shri Digvijay Singh condemning the atrocities on adivasis and demanding their immediate unconditional release. They have demanded that the Man Project should be immediately stopped and land based rehabilitation of the affected adivasis be undertaken.
Alok Agarwal
Govindsingh Ravat

http://www.narmada.org/nba-press-releases/march-2001/false.charges.html

Adivasis, Dams, and Displacement in India

    * Author:
          o Thakkar
          o , Himanshu
    * CSQ Issue:
          o 23.3 (Fall 1999) Going Under: The Struggle Against Large Dams

India today has over 3600 dams; more than 3300 of them built after independence in 1947. At least 700 more dams are under construction. Adivasis constitute 8.08 percent of India's population as per 1991 census figures. According to an Indian government working group, 40-50 percent of those displaced by development projects are adivasis. Information about number of adivasis displaced by dams is available in case of a few of these projects, which is tabulated in table below. It clearly shows that the adivasis have faced a disproportionate share of displacement.

A question that arises when considering large dam projects is what benefits adivasis gain from such development. Once again, there is no systematic information. (Such lack of information on these crucial aspects itself show the utter insensitivity of the establishment on the issue.) Anecdotal information indicates that very minimal, if at all any, benefits of such dams and the related green revolution and electricity have reached adivasis.

The Indian constitution, incidentally, gives special status to adivasis. While stipulating equal opportunity and treatment for all, it has made special provisions for positive discrimination for adivasis and dalits. In 1996, the Parliament passed a constitutional amendment to give adivasis dominated villages special rights to decide about use of natural resources in their areas. In the adivasis dominated northeast of India, the special sixth schedule of the constitution gives communities the right to partake in decisions affecting them and their natural resources. Many states of India have passed acts so that non-adivasis do not alienate the adivasis from their lands. The president of India has special powers to intervene when the lives, cultures, and natural resources of adivasis are in danger. But in spite of these special provisions and acts, the condition of adivasis in India have only gone from bad to worse. Exploiters from all over the country have found ways to alienate adivasis from their lands and natural resources. The 1996 amendment has remained on paper. There is not even one case where to protect the adivasis communities and their natural resources, a large dam or development project has been stalled using presidential powers.
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/thakkar/adivasis-dams-and-displacement-india

Refugees are not illegal migrants

By Oishik Sircar

Though India plays host to over 300,000 refugees from neighbouring countries, the country has a completely ad hoc system of refugee determination, deportation and protection

India plays host to approximately 332,300 refugees (World Refugee Survey 2003), and is the second largest refugee-receiving country in South Asia, after Pakistan. India's multi-ethnic, multi-lingual society has made it an attractive destination for a lot of asylum-seekers. Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, the Jumma people from Bangladesh, the Chin and other tribal refugees from Myanmar, refugees from Afghanistan, Iran and even Sudan comprise the bulk of India's refugee population.

But the enormity of the situation is discussed only with regard to the political rhetoric on 'illegal migrants' who, the government claims, have become an economic burden on the country and need to be deported. This claim works as a strategy for playing the ethnicity card, to create vote-banks before the elections. At other times, people rejoice when census figures show that the number of 'illegal migrants' has actually gone down. How the government deals with the 'illegal migrants' and the process of their determination and deportation is seldom questioned. Not by the media, not even by civil society.

As a major player in South Asian politics, and indeed world politics today, issues regarding India's economic might have become central to its attempts at claming South Asia's 'big brother' status. As a rapidly 'developing' nation, free movement of capital in and out of the country is supported by a structured regime of national economic policies that adhere to international trade-law obligations through the WTO, World Bank and IMF and regional trade cooperation treaties through SAARC. However, we know very little about India's state obligations towards respecting and protecting the human rights of people who are labelled 'illegal migrants' or 'aliens', arrested as criminals under the Passport Act 1967, the Registration of Foreigners Act 1939 or the Foreigners Act 1946. In spite of the presence of such large numbers of people in the country who have fled persecution in neighbouring countries, India has a completely ad hoc system of refugee determination, deportation and selective protection.

The government officially recognises only Tibetan and Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and provides them state protection. For all other refugee populations -- the Burmese Chin, Chakmas and Rohingyas from Bangladesh, Sudanese and Afghans, etc -- it's left to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in New Delhi to administer operations to provide refugee identity certificates to those belonging to communities/nationalities not recognised by the government.

So, people fleeing persecution and ending up in India are left at the mercy of the government's ad hoc policies and the limited operations of the UNHCR. All this, despite a Supreme Court judgment (NHRC vs State of Arunachal Pradesh) that categorically states that all 'refugees' within Indian territory are guaranteed the right to life and personal liberty enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution.

This judgment, passed in the year 1996, has not yet prompted the Indian government to accede to the 1951 UN Refugees Convention. According to the government, the convention is Eurocentric in nature and does not reflect the special needs of the countries of the Global South. This, however, has not prompted India to take proactive steps towards a national law on refugee protection or to initiate a dialogue to develop a regional refugee protection regime. In fact, the country's fears of an economic burden created by 'illegal migrants', and also the security threat posed by 'terrorists' could actually be allayed by the setting up of a national or regional refugee protection regime.

Although the UNHCR has done some commendable work in the country, in the absence of any national law, India's ad hoc refugee policy curtails a lot of its work. In India, the UNHCR provides only de facto protection to its mandate refugees and relies on the tolerance and goodwill of the Indian government. The government only partially recognises the UNHCR mandate; mandate refugees therefore have no formal recognition and are subject to the same municipal laws as foreigners. This lack of formal status weakens the UNHCR's role in advocacy and intervention for refugee rights.

This situation is mirrored in other South Asian countries that have not acceded to the 1951 convention or the 1967 protocol, thus undermining the international legal regime for the protection of refugees. Though the Indian government proceeds on the assumption that India has a strong humanitarian tradition of hosting refugees, which was present even before the drafting of the convention, lack of accession or the development of a national or regional refugee legal regime is cause for concern.

Even with its limited capacities, the UNHCR itself flagrantly ignores guidelines for the treatment of refugees while conducting interviews to determine and adjudicate refugee status.

Ravi Nair, director of the Delhi-based South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC) observers: "The cardinal problem arises when both the UNHCR and the Government of India (GoI) violate their own standards and principles. While it is possible to bring the GoI under the scrutiny of quasi-judicial bodies like the National Human Rights Commission and the judiciary, there is no such mechanism to scrutinise the UNHCR. Official rules and procedures have become an excuse to raise the veil of secrecy and to resort to arbitrariness at the expense of the refugees."

Consider an incident that took place in October-November 2003, when Burmese Chin refugees and asylum-seekers staged a protest against the UNHCR for not processing their applications in time and humiliating them during the assessment process. Following the protest, the police arrested around 25 demonstrators. It took more than three weeks for organisations working with refugees in the capital to arrive at a consensus on how to bail the demonstrators out!

This was a point where the UNHCR's New Delhi office required security protection -- fearing attacks from Burmese Chin refugees it claimed to assist. When the demonstrations turned slightly volatile, the UNHCR actually got them arrested, knowing full well that some of the protestors were asylum-seekers and could now be deported. Those arrested were remanded to custody for over two weeks without any intervention by the UNHCR. The Socio-legal Information Centre (SLIC), one of the UNHCR's implementing partners responsible for providing legal assistance to refugees, also turned a blind eye to the events. It was only when other civil society organisations took up the issue that the UNHCR responded.

This is just one of the many instances where the UNHCR has violated its own standards.

Given the realities in South Asia, efforts should be geared towards developing comprehensive national laws that uphold the universal principles of international refugee protection, while at the same time taking into account the distinctive traits of the region. This would be a more solution-oriented approach; one that is both pertinent and fair in light of current displacements within the South Asia region.

"If such a national legislation were adopted by South Asian states without acceding to the refugee convention, it would be a rare example of national legislation superseding international obligations," says Brian Gorlick, a former legal officer with the UNHCR, New Delhi. "The absence of national laws has meant that refugees are dependent on the benevolence of the state rather than on a regime of rights to reconstruct their lives in dignity. A consistent legal framework is vital for the prevention of political ad hocism, which often translates into forcible repatriation for refugees," adds Nair.

The first attempt at formulating a draft regional law for refugee protection was formulated in 1966, when the African-Asian Legal Consultative Committee, an inter-governmental organisation, adopted the Bangkok Principles on the Status and Treatment of Refugees. These principles have since been kept in cold storage; only the text was finalised at a meeting in New Delhi in 2001.

In November 1997, the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) for South Asia, put together by the UNHCR, approved a model national law at its Dhaka Consultation. This model law is the first step in the process of building a consensus on preventing, managing and solving the problems accompanying refugee flows within South Asia in a comprehensive and humane manner. The purpose of the law is to establish a procedure for granting refugee status to asylum-seekers and those forced to migrate due to a well-founded fear of persecution; to guarantee them fair treatment and to establish the requisite machinery for its implementation. The model law provides a comprehensive definition suiting the needs of the region. Unfortunately it has remained a legal fiction, with states showing no inclination towards incorporating it in their respective national legislations.

Since India is one of the largest receiving countries in South Asia, it should take the initiative in establishing a refugee law regime in the region by first making a national law on refuge protection. This would be an extension of India's obligations under various international human rights instruments that it has acceded to. Such an initiative would also show that India takes its membership of the UNHCR EXCOM (executive committee) seriously, and wants to strengthen its role there. As Professor B S Chimni, an international law expert and vice-chancellor of the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, points out: "To remain a member of the EXCOM without either acceding to the 1951 convention or passing a national legislation shows an opportunistic attitude towards UN institutions that does the image of the country little good in the international community."

Post September 11 and July 7, political realities and trends in immigration policies inevitably lead to the conclusion that refugee rights protection in South Asia can only be made effective if efforts are focused on improving the national legal and judicial practices to supplement the existing conventional international refugee law framework. A regional refugee treaty would be the most effective way of making sure that states remain bound to their obligations. It is also recommended that a treaty-monitoring body be established with powers similar to those of human rights treaty bodies. This body should have the authority to issue general recommendations, view state reports and receive individual complaints from people facing persecution.

The process of developing an 'asylum law' regime in South Asia must include governments, NGOs and protection agencies alike because it is important to take a holistic view of this phenomenon. Along with advocating and campaigning for the establishment of a national/regional 'asylum law' regime, civil society institutions must urge states that are not signatories to other international human rights law instruments to accede to them and also press those states that have acceded but have not made enabling legislation to do so.

"Governments must be more concerned about the protection of people facing persecution, rather than thinking about how a refugee regime might open the floodgates to illegal immigrants. It is a substantive law that would facilitate states to identify illegal immigrants from refugees," says Chimni.

A step in this direction would not only be a landmark achievement in the development of asylum jurisprudence in the region, it would also be a major addition to intervention mechanisms for the protection of human rights globally.

(Oishik Sircar is a human rights lawyer and researcher)

InfoChange News & Features, May 2006
http://infochangeindia.org/200605015531/Human-Rights/Analysis/Refugees-are-not-illegal-migrants.html
DEVELOPMENT DISPLACEMENT:

Whose Nation Is It?

Smitu Kothari

As far back as the mid-19th century people in India's tribal areas organised protests and rebellions against British colonial laws such as the Forest Act of 1876, which prevented their use of the forest lands on which their way of life depended. Though India gained its independence in 1950, the displacement once associated with colonialism continues in the name of development.

Since Independence, development projects under India's Five-Year plans have displaced about 500,000 persons each year - evicted from their lands by direct administrative actions of government. This figure does not include those deprived of their livelihoods by the expansion of large estate monoculture production, or those deprived of their livelihoods by project related natural resource extraction, urban evictions, or by the relocation of other displacement victims. Estimates of the total number of those displaced by "development" since independence reaches as high as 40 million people. India's recent thrust to open itself to the global economy and rely more on market forces will surely accelerate the displacement.

Hydroelectric and irrigation projects are the largest source of displacement and destruction of habitat. Other major sources are mines, thermal and nuclear power plants, industrial complexes, military installations, weapons testing grounds, railways, roads, and the expansion of reserved forest areas, sanctuaries and parks.

Displacement results in dismantling production systems, severing trade and market links, desecrating ancestral sacred zones, graves, and temples, scattering kinship groups and extended families, and weakening cultural systems of self-management and control. The consequences are especially severe for women. They lose access to the fuel, fodder and food they traditionally collected for their households from common lands. They thus face increase pauperisation and are thrust into the margins of the labour market.

Though India's tribal people make up roughly 7.5 percent of the population, over 40 percent of those displaced from 1950 to 1990 were from tribal communities. Since 1990 the figures has risen to 50 percent. Planners and administrators invariably capitalise on and manipulate the relatively weaker socio-economic and political position of most of the people facing displacement. Their numbers are underestimated, they are treated indifferently and only minimal cash compensation, if at all, is paid. They are rarely granted security of tenure on alternative developed land sites. All too often after a painful and traumatic period of establishing a new lifestyle, they are informed they must move again to make way for yet another project. Despite the scale of the displacement and the efforts of some governmental and independent groups, resettlement efforts continue to be shoddy and grossly inadequate.

In the post-independence period, progress, national self-sufficiency, industrialism, and large development projects were seen as synonymous. Carried by the euphoria of nation building, most "sacrifices" sought by the rulers were widely seen as legitimate, justified as being for the "national good". Given the number of displacements and the plight suffered by the displaced, many are now asking: whose nation is it? Whose good is being served?

A common question from people facing displacement is that while precise details exist regarding the technical and economic aspects of the projects, backed by scores of professionals, why is there never a plan for them? Why are they never consulted?

Even where government does attempt to address its responsibility to the displaced, there is an underlying assumption that since displacement is inevitable, the need is to "deal" with the trauma, not to question the project, much less the development model, that is causing the displacement. No one considers that perhaps the current pattern of economic development invoked to justify the forced evictions of people is itself incompatible with the goals of equity and social security.

It is time to recognise that the projects in which massive public investments are being made involve not only the harnessing of natural resources such as land, water, minerals, and forests, they also alter the existing distribution, use, access to, and control over natural resources among different sections of society. This raises vital issues concerning fairness, equity and justice.

An improvement in the lives of those whom a project otherwise imposes severe costs in order to create benefits for others should be considered an entitlement, not an act of reluctant generosity - a basic test of project benefit. While the first goal should be to find alternatives that cause minimal displacement, in those instances where displacement is inevitable, it is imperative that the full costs of rehabilitation be internalised into the project costs.

Smitu Kothari is editor of the Lokyan Bulletin, 13 Allpur Road, Delhi 110054, India. Fax (91-11) 662-6837 and a contributing editor of the People-Centered Development Forum.

http://www.converge.org.nz/pirm/displace.htm

Links to information on development-induced displacement in India

While the focus of the Global IDP Project is on conflict-induced displacement, development and urban infrastructure projects are the main reasons for involuntary displacement in India. The tribal population has been disproportionally affected: An estimated two per cent of the total Indian population has been displaced by development projects. Of these, 40 percent are tribals although they constitute only 8 percent of the total population (Courtland Robinson, May 2003 pp. 10-11). This envelope includes some basic information on displacement due to development projects and also provides links to internet pages with more exhaustive information.

During the last fifty years, some 3.300 big dams have been constructed in India and another 1,000 are under construction (Courtland Robinson, May 2003 p. 17). Many of them have led to large-scale forced eviction of vulnerable groups. The situation of the adivasis or tribal people is of special concern as they are reported to constitute between 40 and 50% of the displaced population. As a result of misguided (or non-existing) state policy, project-affected communities have been subject to sudden eviction, lack of information, failure to prepare rehabilitation plans, low compensation, loss of assets and livelihoods, traumatic relocation, destruction of community bonds, discrimination and impoverishment (Mander, August 1999, p.4-5, 13-17). Amnesty International has documented human rights abuses against those who protest against forced displacement (AI 2000).

There are no official statistics on the numbers of people displaced by large projects since independence. In 1994, the Government mentioned the figure of 15.5 million internally displaced and acknowledged that some 11.5 million were still awaiting rehabilitation. However, calculations based on the number of dams constructed since independence indicate that as many as 21 to 33 million persons are likely to have been displaced (Fernandes 2000, p.277; Mander, August 1999, p.5). However, these estimates do not include persons displaced by canals, or by the construction of colonies or other infrastructure. Neither do they include those who have been subjected to multiple displacements (Rangachari, 2000, p. 116-117). According to Human Rights Watch, Indigenous peoples, known as Scheduled Tribes or Adivasis, suffer from high rates of displacement. They make up 8 percent of the total population but constitute 55 percent of displaced people. This has had a serious effect on the overall development of these communities, particularly tribal children. The government continues to use the 1894 Land Acquisition Act to displace indigenous peoples from their lands without sufficient compensation (HRW, January 2006).

The resettlement and rehabilitation of the large number of persons displaced by development projects has been far from successful. A major obstacle has been the government's reluctance to adopt a clear "land-for-land" policy. Instead, insufficient cash compensation or poorly designed non-land based projects has left many destitute. At the same time, local social networks and traditional support systems have been destroyed, leaving many development-displaced with no option but to head for the slums of the major cities (Mander, August 1999, p.8-10, 13-14).

One of the most controversial development projects in India is the Narmada Valley Development Project. It envisages building 3,200 dams that will reconstitute the Narmada and her 419 tributaries into a series of step-reservoirs – an immense staircase of amenable water. Of these, 30 will be major dams, 135 medium and the rest small. Two of the major dams will be multi-purpose mega dams. The Sardar Sarovar in Gujarat and the Narmada Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, will, between them, hold more water than any other reservoir in the Indian subcontinent (Roy 5 February 2000).

The first dam on the Narmada River, the Bargi Dam which was completed in 1990, reportedly displaced 114.000 people from 162 villages and today irrigates only 5% of the land it was said to benefit. Most of the evicted got no compensation for lost land and livelihood (Roy 5 February 2000).

The construction of of the Sardar Sarovar Reservoir has been the most contested so far. In 1979, the official estimate for the number of families that would be displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Reservoir was about 6,000. Today, the official estimate range between 40,000 and 42,000 families, which means about 200,000 people. However, this figure is strongly contested by local activist groups. The NBA [Narmada Bachao Andolan-Movement to Save Narmada], estimates that close to half a million people will be affected by the project (Roy 5 February 2000).

In what was seen as a major victory for the anti-dam activists, the World Bank withdrew from the Narmada project in 1993 and the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam was stopped shortly afterwards (BBC 16 November 2000). However, an October 2000 ruling by the Indian Supreme Court authorizes renewed construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. The ruling stipulated that those displaced by the dam would be compensated. However, many human rights advocates and NGO's continued to allege that the construction of the dam would displace 40,000 families without adequately compensating those who are resettled (U.S.DOS February 2001).

For further reading:

The Paper "Risks and Rights: Causes, Consequences, and Challenges of Development-Induced Displacement" by Courtland Robinson (Brookings-SAIS, May 2003) contains a substantial bibliography on development induced displacement in India:

http://www.brook.edu/fp/projects/idp/articles/didreport.pdf

UNHCR and the Protection of Refugees in India

UNHCR and the Protection of Refugees in India
by Christina Harrison, B.A., LL.B., (UNA-Canada's intern in 1998-1999), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Regional Office for India

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) plays many different roles in order to effect refugee protection in nations around the world.

In Canada, the UNHCR has a comparatively passive role beside the multi-tiered system that the federal government has instituted to accomplish the task of determining refugee status. The Convention Refugee Determination Division (CRDD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board was created under national legislation pursuant to Canada's obligations as a state party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. The CRDD is an administrative tribunal independent of the Canadian government.

None of the countries in the region of South Asia is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol. Neither do these countries address the problem of refugees through domestic legislation or procedures.

Thus, in India, the UNHCR is very active, playing one of two roles, depending on the refugee population in question. The Indian government has undertaken to assist the refugees of Tibet and Sri Lanka under its own auspices. With respect to these populations then, the UNHCR plays only a 'watch-dog' role, monitoring conditions and ensuring that when refugees return to their home country, their repatriation is voluntary.

UNHCR deals almost exclusively with the remaining refugee populations in India, comprising displaced nationals of Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Myanmar, Somalia, and Sudan. With respect to these populations, UNHCR performs the function of refugee status determination in addition to providing medical, educational, vocational and financial assistance to those recognized as refugees. Ultimately however, it is the Indian government that must provide for these refugees a suitable environment for asylum.

UNHCR works throughout the region of South Asia to increase public awareness of refugee issues and to encourage governments to address both the root causes and the consequences of refugee migration. UNHCR has been instrumental in organizing a series of regional consultations on the problem of refugees. The most recent consultations, held in Dhaka in November 1997, focussed on developing and adopting a Model National Law on Refugees. The participants, including eminent jurists and former politicians from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, raised some interesting rationales for their respective countries' failure to sign the 1951 Refugee Convention.

The rationales included the South Asian perceptions: (1) that 'Western' signatories only meet their obligations when it suits them to do so; (2) that the Convention is tailored to post-WWII era refugees and has become outmoded, impotent to deal with the mass migrations of recent years; (3) that signing the Convention will mean taking on financial burdens which they cannot bear; and (4) that each of them has been generous and responsive to the needs of refugee populations on a crisis-by-crisis basis.

While acknowledging the validity of some of these points, the group urged their respective nations to adopt national legislation which would give the countries the flexibility to meet their own concerns while giving legal force to the humanitarian ideals of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The participants also suggested that the natural extension of the Consultation would be to come to a regional consensus similar to that of the Organization of African Unity.

In India, adopting the model national legislation would be a first step toward a greater capacity to protect refugees. India has restrictive laws governing the entry and stay of foreigners. Due to this legislation and the extensive discretion afforded to the authorities who implement it, a refugee may feel that s/he leads an uncertain life, unable to work or travel and protected only according to the whims of the government. A national refugee determination system and government-recognized refugee status would carry the attendant privileges of government-issued travel and identity documents as well as greater freedom of movement within and outside of India. This status, in turn, would afford refugees greater protection from refoulement (involuntary return to their home country) and make their stay in India less precarious.

The UNHCR can only act to recognize refugees within its mandate. It is at the national level that asylum is provided. Thus it is incumbent upon India, among the other South Asian nations, to adopt some consistent national approach to refugee status determination and its attendant rights, obligations and privileges.

The promotion of a national legislation and framework for refugee protection is inherently a political and gradual process. To see this process from close up and from the perspective of a developing country is indeed a worthwhile experience in respect of understanding the evolution of law.

*Christina Harrison is one of two Canadian lawyers placed with the Legal Unit of the UNHCR Office in New Delhi, India in the 1998-1999 internship programme.
http://www.unac.org/en/get_involved/internships/protection.asp

Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)




    * Facts
    * Background
    * Australia's response
    * The global agenda

Facts

    * World Refugee Day is June 29
    * At the end of 2006, the number of 'persons of concern' to UNHCR was 32.9 million, an increase of over 50% during the year.
    * The 32.9 million people of concern included:
          o 9.9 million refugees
          o 744,000 asylum-seekers
          o 734,000 refugees who had repatriated during 2006
          o 12.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs)
          o 1.9 million IDPs who had returned to their place of origin in 2006
          o 5.8 million stateless persons
          o 1 million others of concern.
    * Countries with the most people of concern were Colombia with 3.6 million persons or 11% of the total; Iraq with 3.5 million or 11%, Afghanistan with 2.8 million or 8% and Sudan with 2.1 million or 6%.
    * Countries with most refugees were Afghanistan with 2.1 million or 20% of total refugee population, Iraq (1.5 million), Sudan (686,000), Somalia (460,000), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (402,000), and Burundi (397,000).
    * The top five refugee hosting countries are: Pakistan (1 million), Iran (968,000), United States (843,000) Syria (702,000) and Germany (605,000).
    * Developing regions hosted 7.1 million refugees, 72% of the global refugee population. The 50 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) provided asylum to 22 % of the world's refugees.

Source : http://www.unhcr.org/

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Background
Who are refugees?

A refugee is a person who, "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear is unwilling to, avail himself of the protection of that country..." (The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951).
Imagine being so scared of being killed, tortured or victimised that you would leave your home, all your possessions and connections with your community, for an uncertain future. Fear drives people to leave with only a few belongings on a journey which is full of uncertainty. Will it be safe? Will they be able to return? In 2004 there were over 17 million refugees and 22 million internally displaced people who had taken that risk.
Who are 'people of concern'?

'People of concern' is a generic term used to describe all people for whom the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is internationally responsible. They include:

    • Refugees - people who are recognised as fleeing from persecution and who have left their own country. They come under international protection
    • Asylum seekers - people who have fled their own country, and are seeking recognition by another country as a refugee and acceptance for resettlement. They are dependent on the good will and generosity of the country to which they have fled.
    • Returned refugees - the unstable situations which have caused people to flee take time to settle, so the UNHCR monitors their situation for 12 months after they return home.
    • Internally Displaced People (IDP) - some people who flee their homes in fear, but do not cross over their country's international borders come under UNHCR protection after the invitation by the government of their own country.
    The increasing numbers of IDPs and awareness for the need for international protection has led to the development of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.
    • Stateless person - someone who is not considered a national by any country.

How are the rights of refugees protected?

The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) and its 1967 Protocol outline the rights and processes protecting the needs of those who are recognised as refugees. A total of 147countries have committed themselves to upholding the provisions of one or both of these documents.
Most people fleeing their country conflict and persecution seek asylum in their nearest neighbouring country. Often these countries need support to provide for the sudden arrival of large numbers of uprooted persons. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) co-ordinates contributions by government and non-government organisations to protect refugees, provides assistance such as financial grants, food, tools and shelter, schools and clinics, and attempts to find durable solutions to a given refugee crisis.
How are the rights of IDPs protected?

Concern for the increasing numbers of internally displaced people (IDPs) and questioning of the sovereignty of governments the UN Commission on Human Rights introduced the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement in 1998. The Guiding Principles recognise the rights of internally displaced people and the obligations of governments and the international community toward these people.
In general the protection of IDPs is limited as governments of people affected may be either unable or unwilling to assist them. Security or political concerns and limited financial resources restrict the ability of international agencies and NGOs to offer assistance and provide protection.
Life in flight

Leaving home hurriedly, people often have few resources and are vulnerable to further attack. Sometimes they have many days of travel, with little food and in fear of their lives. If they get to safety, they rely on the people living in the area to which they have fled, who often have few resources to share. International organisations take time to mobilise the support necessary to provide refugees with adequate food, water and sanitation, shelter, healthcare, schools, trauma counselling and income generating activities so that they can regain some independence quickly. International organisations work together to provide these basic necessities.

When people arrive at an area which is set up as a temporary refugee shelter, they are registered for their protection and to their determine needs. Defining who and where people are assists in the supply of sufficient resources, especially for those with special needs such as separated children, those needing medical attention and the elderly.

Each situation is different. The length of time taken to resolve the conflict, resources available to meet needs, and the international ability to find solutions all impact on the ability of refugees to rebuild their lives.

How are refugee issues resolved?

Return home
The majority of refugees are able to return home after conflicts have ended, but a great deal of support is necessary to rebuild lives and infrastructure, and to restore stability. People who have been displaced need counselling, and practical assistance such as shelter, food and other items to restart their lives. People who have been involved in conflicts need alternative work. Homes, schools, health clinics, water and sanitation systems, and roads often need to be rebuilt. Landmines may need to be cleared. Trust between people who have been fighting needs to be re-established.

Resettlement in a new country
Some refugees cannot go home or are unwilling to do so, usually because they fear they would face continued persecution. In such circumstances, UNHCR helps to find them new homes, either in the country of asylum, or in a third country. This may take a long time, as there are more people in need than places available. Many nations accept refugees on a temporary basis during the early phases of a crisis but, are unable to provide long term support. Some more developed nations resettle refugees through a quota or a demand basis. Resettling refugees who have suffered a great loss, for example those who have suffered the destruction of their homes, families and sense of identity, requires tremendous support, as they usually have to learn a new culture and language, establish a new social network and earn a living.

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Australia's response

The Australian government is committed to caring for refugees and other people of concern. It contributes financially to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other key humanitarian agencies. It supports protecting and improving conditions for refugees, finding durable solutions to refugee crises and the reintegration of returnees, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region and is committed to fostering respect for international humanitarian law, and refugee and human rights law through participating in international forums.

Source : http://www.ausaid.gov.au/human/

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The global agenda






International Organization for Migration (IOM)
URL: http://www.iom.int/

The International Organization for Migration is an intergovernmental organisation which assists with a variety of migration management activities throughout the world. These include: assisted voluntary returns and integration, counter-trafficking, labour migration and migration health.



Long Journey Young lives
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/longjourney/documentary_broadband.html

There are four chapters to this interactive story, each containing several short videos and transcripts of young child refugees which detail their memories and stories.



Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
URL: http://ochaonline.un.org/

Coordination of the prevention of situations leading to internal displacement, protection and support of IDPs and advocacy for and public information about IDPs is through the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division.



United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
URL: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home

Helping the world's refugees is the job of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which was created by the U.N. General Assembly and began work in 1951. Available in French, German, Japanese or Korean, the site offers maps, documents, press releases, images, country specific information and an issues section which provides articles on refugee children, the environment, women's issues and many other subjects. There is a section for teachers on how to use the site and offering modules on language and literature, art, history, geography and civic education. Lesson plans are included. For secondary school students.
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/182

09/12/2009

2009, one of world's hottest years since 1850

Copenhagen: This year is likely to rank as one of the "10 warmest" since 1850, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said Tuesday in a report providing further evidence that the world is heating up.

2009, one of world's hottest years since 1850

The report by the Geneva-based organisation also found that the current decade was already warmer than the 1990s, which were in turn warmer than the 1980s.

"Large parts of southern Asia and central Africa are likely to have the warmest year on record," the report said.

And while a few weeks remain of 2009, data collected by the WMO between January and October suggests that average global temperatures were already 0.44 degrees Centigrade above the annual average for the 1961-1990 reference period.

"Warming is not uniform - there will still be cold winters and summers, but what we are talking about is a trend," WMO Secretary General Michel Jarraud said at the launch of the WMO report at the UN climate change conference underway in Copenhagen.

"Cold waves will become less frequent, and heat waves more frequent," he added.

While above-normal temperatures were recorded in most parts of the continents, the US and Canada experienced conditions that were cooler than average, the UN agency said.

11/12/2009

Moments in the melee: The week that was

From protest demonstrations to a green coloured Santa, as leaders at Copenhagen mull over the future of the earth and global warming issues, we take a look at images that stood out in the melee.

Moments in the melee: The week that was

Copenhagen: Protesters demonstrate against the possible end of the Kyoto-Protocol during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Environment ministers sought to boost UN climate talks after the marathon meeting ran into turbulence, including a tough exchange between the United States and China.

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16/12/2009

Clash of Titans: Pick 'Business leader of the year' for 2009

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2009 marks the end of recession and onset of economic recovery across global. The world's agenda has clearly moved beyond Asian Tigers to East Asia. Today the focus is on India and China. It is in the backdrop of this economic climate that the Indian business leaders are setting new standards of local-global integration, re-defining the dynamics of entrepreneurial initiatives in the process. With these visionaries lies the onus of carving out an edge for the nation and leveraging the opportunity thrown open by economic recovery. A few names that qualify for the 'Business leader of the year' title:

Ratan Tata: From Nano to DoCoMo

Ratan Tata: From Nano to DoCoMo

Ratan Naval Tata, the name responsible for envisioning 'Nano', manufacturing 'Nano' and doing a 'Nano' (in water purifier segment!), has of late made headlines for the 'not-so-Nano' ripples his conglomerate created in the telecom sector. Collaborating with Japan's DOCOMO Inc, Ratan Tata launched Tata DoCoMo, a brand that instantly struck a chord for its 'call anywhere in India just for 1 paise per second' positioning. Commenting on the introduction of the GSM Services, Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Group said: 'This launch is truly a moment of triumph for the consumer. The launch of pay-per-use, per-second concept offered by Tata DoCoMo will create a paradigm shift in the overall telecom experience for the customer.' Looks like he is brewing a 'Nano' storm for his business rivals in telecom sector.

2009: Hall of Shame

Decade@glance

2009 Crime Charts

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Dec 16, 2009 IST 23:08:48

12 years later, Uphaar victims get interim relief

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted an interim relief of Rs 5.14 crore to dependents and injured victims of Uphaar cinema hall tragedy, which claimed 59 lives and injured 103 people in New Delhi in June 1997. • Mumbai police to seek info about Headley from US • BJP wants Pak's ISI under 'global watch' • Indo-US n-deal to be finalised soon: Foreign Secy • SC taunts govt on Prez copter mishap

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Guantanamo inmates to transfer to Illinois prison
Barack Obama's administration said it will transfer detainees to a prison in the US president's home state of Illinois.

Illinois prison set for Gitmo detainees
Some people who live in Thomson, Illinois, are happy that Guantanamo Bay detainees may be moved to a prison in their town.

Ill. prison to get Gitmo detainees
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Taking an important step on the thorny path to closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the White House plans to announce Tuesday that the government will acquire an underutilized state prison in rural Illinois to be the new home for a limited number of terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo. Administration officials as well as Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will make an official announcement at the White House. Officials from both the White House and Durbin's office confirmed that President Barack Obama had directed the government to acquire Thomson Correctional ... Email

Lawmakers Spar Over Decision to Transfer Gitmo Detainees to Illinois Prison
Republicans were lining up to criticize the Obama administration Tuesday over its decision to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in Illinois, accusing President Obama of increasing the threat to America's security by making the U.S. home to suspected terrorists.

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Police to seek info about Headley, Rana from US court

Hindustan Times - ‎43 minutes ago‎

PTI In a fresh turn in the Mumbai terror attack case, Mumbai police would approach the trial court seeking a letter rogatory to obtain evidence from a US court about alleged involvement of David Headley and Tahawwur Rana in the 26/11 attacks.

India asks Chicago consulate to explain missing Headley, Rana papers Times of India

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All India Radio - BreakingNewsOnline. - Hindu - IBNLive.com - Wikipedia: David Headley

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PETA Campaigns 2009: When saving wildlife became a sexy job!

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Moments in the melee: The week that was

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