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Chapter- 2
SITUATION OF DISPLACEMENT AND
REHABILITATION IN INDIA:
A REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter deals with the situation of displacement and rehabilitation in India.
It focuses on various issues of displacement and rehabilitation of the oustees, displaced
by various developmental projects. It also reviews various existing literature on the
problem. ,·J
After independence, when India launched the task of nation building, it
chose the path of planned development, which was flagged off with the launching
of the five-year plans. Since economic development was conspicuously low, the
planner focused more on economic development and development defined mainly
as growth of GNP, which was symbolised by the new factories, dams, mega
projects, mining etc (Kaviraj: 1996, 116). They were even referred as the "temples
of modem India" and symbol of progress and prosperity. Though these mega ,J
projects have provided power to growing industries, irrigation to thirsty lands and,
above all, have brought economic prosperity to the nation, nevertheless, these
mega development projects have led to forced displacement of thousands of people
from their ancestral lands. The "temples of modem India" have become "temples
of doom" for the uprooted people.
Such projects have changed the patterns of use of land, water and other natural
resources that previously prevailed in the areas (Goyal: 1996). People dependent upon
the land, forest and other natural resources for their livelihood have been dispossessed
of their subsistence through land acquisition and displacement
Estimating the Scale of Displacement
Though millions of people have been displaced by vanous planned
development schemes since independence, no reliable data exist on the extent of
30
displacement and rehabilitation. Only a few official statistics are available. Some case
studies that are available indicate that official sources by and large tend to
underestimate the number of persons displaced by development projects. In the
absence of firm project wise data, the estimate of total number of people displaced by
planned development intervention from 1951-90 ranges from 110 lakhs to an over all
figure of 185 lakhs (Femades and Thu~al: 1989: 4): However, according to another
estimation, a total 213 lakh people have been displaced by various developmental
projects (Femades and Paranjepe: 1997: 15). These figures do not include the sizeable
number of people who are not acknowledged as being 'project affected' (i.e. by loss of
livelihood caused by natural resource extraction or degradation), those displaced in
urban areas and those victimised by the phases of secondary displacement. 1 If these
are tallied, the number of those displaced since independence would be as high as four
crores (Kothari, 1996). The number of people permanently uprooted from their homes,
is equal to or larger than the population of many major sovereign countries.
Out of 213 lakhs people as estimated by Walter Femades and V.Paranjpe by
various developmental projects, 25.5 lakhs of people have been displaced by mines,
12.5 lakhs by industries, 164 lakhs by large and medium dams, 6 lakhs by park and
wild life operation and 5 lakhs by other projects. The table 2.1 presents the details of
displacement of people by various development schemes in India during 1951-90.
Secondary displacement refers to those whose livelihoods are adversely affected either as a direct and indirect or as a short-tenn and long tenn consequences of the developmental intervention but who are not acknowledged as 'project affected people· (PAPs).
31
Table: 2.1 A conservative estimate of the total number of persons and tribals displaced by various developmental projects in India during 1951-90 (in Iakhs)
Types of AJI DPs o/o of DPs % of Back log Back Tribals % of All Tribal DPs 0/o of Back log o/o of Project (Lakhs) DPs Resettled Resettled (lakhs) log% Dis. (in DPs Resettled Tribal of ttibal Back
(lakhs) DPs lakhs) (lakhs) DPs DPs log Dams 164.0 77.0 41.00 25.0 123.00 75.0 63.21 38.5 15.81 25.0 47.40 75.00
Mines 25.5 12.0 6.30 24.7 19.20 75.3 13.30 52.2 3.30 25.0 10.00 75.0
Industries 12.5 5.9 3.75 30.0 8.75 70.0 3.13 25.0 0.80 25.0 2.33 75.0
Wildlife 6.0 2.8 1.25 20.8 4.75 79.2 4.5 75.0 1.00 22.0 3.50 78.0
Others 5.0 2.3 1.50 30.0 3.50 70.0 1.25 25.0 0.25 20.0 1.00 80.0
: ~ '"' Total 213.0 100 53.80 25.0 159.20 75.0 85.39 40.9 21.16 25.0 64.23 79.0
[Source:· Fernades,and Paranjepe, I 997, pp. 24--32
32
Among the developmental projects, dams are the biggest agents of
displacement India has the distinction of having the largest number of river valley
projects in the world. For rapid irrigation and for hydro-electricity production, there
are a total of 3,634 dams (major and medium) which have been constructed during
the period of 1951-90. Together with 53.9lakhs displaced by medium dams, a total
of 164lakhs have been displaced by all the dams between 1951-90. People displaced
by some of the major dams is given in the table : 2. 2.
33
Table 2.2 Displacement by some Major Dams Completed in India (1957-1986).
S. No. Name Year of River State Area under Population completion submergence displaced
,, (ha)
1. Maithan and I957
Damodar Bihar I0,7I9 93,900 Panchet ofD.V.C
2. Hirakud
I957 Mahanadi Orissa 73,900
I,OI,OOO
3, Koyna I96I Koyana Maharashtra II ,555 20,000
4. Riband 1962 Riband Uttar Pradesh 65,000 52,000
5. Bhakra 1963 Sutlej Himachal
16,629 36,000 Pradesh
6. Ukai 1972 Tapti Gujarat 64,200 1,01,800
7. Pong I974 Beas H.P 30,364 80,000
8. Nagarjunasagar 1974 Krislma A.P 28,480 28,000 .,
9. Tawa 1975 Tawa River M.P 20,236 38,600
1__o. Jayakawadi I976 Godavari Maharashtra 39,833 65,300 \
II. Kadana 1978 Mani Gujarat I7,722 65,300
I2. Srisaiiam 1982 Krislma A.P 43,289 1,00,000
13. Uper Kolab 1986 Kolab Orissa 9,067 9,000
Source: As cited in Fernades et al 1989,p. 71.
34
Although there are no comprehensive figures of relationship between the
income and social status of the project affected oustees, some micro studies point out
that a considerable number of oustees have been a small and marginal fanners,
scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and other sections of society (Patel: 1986,
Gangopadhya, 1993). Other studies, for instance, the fact finding team of Srisailam
project point out that in this project 141 backward castes and 132 scheduled caste
households were displaced out of a total 344 households (FFCSP, 1986: 256).
Similarly, in the Narmada Sagar and SSP, the two main Narmada Valley Project
dams, it is estimated that the landless communities comprise 43 per cent and 30 per
cent respectively of the total number of oustees (Alveres and Billoray, 1987: 66). In ,
the SSP about 60 per cent of the proposed oustees are tribals (Gadgil and Guha:
1994). V.P. Patel points out that in certain areas; well over 85 per cent landless
communities belong to scheduled tribe'S (Patel: 1986:80). Similarly Mridula Singh
and R.K. Samant Ray in their study often out of twenty-three resettlement centres of
the Nagar:_juna project, point out that 36 per cent of the oustees are tribals, 4 per cent
are scheduled castes and 4. 5 per cent are other backward castes (Singh and Samant
Ray: 1992: 63 ). While the proportion of tribal population displaced incase of Karjan,
Panchet, Pong dams can be as high as 50 per cent of the total population, it is lowest,
at about 18.34 per cent and 18.92 per cent of the population in the case of Hirakud
and Ukai dams respectively.
Thus the backward communities, more particularly the tribal regions and
tribal people are most affected in this process of development since they form the
35
majority in the resource rich regions. The tribal areas produce most of the country's
coal, mica, bauxite and other minerals. Out of 498 mines active in 1993, as many as
485 (98%), are situated in tribal regions. The only major materials found outside the
tribal areas are iron and manganese -60.74 per cent and 58.74 per cent respectively,
of which are in the predominantly noD::tribal areas (Fernades: 1991 ). Due to rapid
industrialisation in tribal areas a total of 3.13 lakhs, and due to mining operation, a
total of 13.3 lakhs tribals have been displaced from their ancestral lands. In addition
to direct displacement, mining activity also severely affects the livelihoods of
thousand more as water tables get disrupted, excessive burden is dumped on fertile
agricultural lands and forest are cut. (Mohapatra: 1991). Not only are communities
deprived of their vital substance resources, but the long-term sustainability of the
resources is also jeopardised.
While, dams (both major and medium) and canals together displaced 63.71
lakhs, park and wild life operation displaced 4.5 lakhs, other projects displaced 1.25
lakhs tribals. In total, 85.39 lakhs of tribal have been displaced by the entire
developmental projects during 1951-1991. This figure is more than 10 per cent of the
total tribal population of the country. While they only form 7.5 percent of the
country's population, their proportion among those displaced by developmental
projects in the country as a whole is over 40 per cent (Sharma: 1990)·85.39 lakhs
tribals, who have been displaced by all the development schemes were 15 per cent of
the tribal population of the country in 1981.
In the recent past, the proportion of tribals among those displaced has been
36
increasing. For example, of the 11.6 lakh persons to be displaced by 20
representative dams above 50 meter either under construction or being planned in the
1990s, 59 per cent are tribals. The figure will obviously increase for dams planned in
predominantly tribal areas. The Central Water Commission's 1990 register of large
dams is also instructive (CWE: 1990). Of the 32 dams of more than 30 meter height
completed between 1951-1970, only nine (22.13%) were in tribal areas. Between
1971-1990, 85 additional dams of similar sizes were either completed or were under
construction. However, by now, not only were they taller and more sophisticated, but
around 60 per cent of them were in the tribal region. Table 2.3 provides situation of
displacement of tribals by m~or dams in India.
37
Table 2.3 Displacement ofTribals by a Few Major Dams under Construction or Planned in Different States of India.
Sl.No Name River State Population to % oftribals . be displaced
I. Lalpur He ran Gujarat 11,300 83.20
2. Daman Daman Ganga Gujarat 8,700 48.70
3. Ganga Narmada Gujarat 11,600 100.0 Karjan
4. Sardar Sarovar Daman Ganga Maharashtra,M.P. 7,500 99.92
5. Narmada Sagar Daman Ganga Maharashtra,M. P. 1,70,000 20.00
6. Maheswar Daman Ganga Maharashtra,M.P. 6,200 60.00
1. Upper Indravati
Indravati Orissa 18,500 89.20
8. Chandil Subranarekha
Bihar . 37,600 87.92
9. Koel-Karo Koel Karo Bihar 66,000 88.00
10. Inchampalli
I Godavari MP&AP 38,100, 76.28
11. Mahi Bajaj Sagar
Mahil Maharastra 38,400 76.28
12. Tehri Baghirathi
U.P 85,600 NA
13. Polavaram Godawari MP&AP 1,50,000 52.90 14. Tultuli Maharastra 13,600 NA
Source: As cited in Fernedes et.al, 1989 p.85.
A recent official report on the rehabilitation of tribals, based on
comprehensive study of 110 projects, concludes that of the 16.94 lakh's people
displaced by these projects, almost 50 ·per cent (8. 14 lakhs) were tribals (Working
Group on Development and Welfare STs: 1993).
The tribals happen to be among the most depressed and underprivileged
communities in India. Even after four decades of development they still remain
outside the pale of any form of visible material change. Thus, the affect of
displacement is more disastrous in case of tribal people (Mathur: 1994: 19).
38
Experience from across the tribal areas in the country illustrates the difficulties that
displaced tribals have been dealing with in the market economy. Their low level of
modern skills coupled with almost non-existent official efforts to facilitate an easier
entry into the dominant economy, pushes a majority of tribals into conditions of
servility and bondage.
For a majority of the tribals, geographical space and an evolved relationship
with it has contributed to their cultural identity and their complex patterns of
subsistence which have primarily depended on land, forests, water bodies, and
animal and plant life. In addition, most do not live in discrete nuclear families but in
exttrnded ones that are integrally linked to a larger community fabric.
Thus, moving to new places is just unthinkable for the tribals as they are
deeply attached to their socio-economic system ·and environment. The word
"resettlement" does not exist in many tribal languages (Escudero, 1988). The
apprehension is that on relocation to new places their culture, customs, traditions,
beliefs, festivals, rituals, songs and dances, social organizations, community life, will
all vanish for ever (Haimnesdort: 1982). No subsequent effort can then undo the
damage done to their traditional culture by resettlement.
Process of Resettlement and Rehabilitation
Despite large-scale displacemen~~ of people by various development projects
smce independence, the country lacks a comprehensive resettlement and
rehabilitation policy to resettle the uprooted people. It was in 1993 that the Ministry
of Rural Development drafted a national rehabilitation policy. This is a sign of the
39
lack of awareness on the part of country's decision-makers, of the state of
displacement. In the Indian Federal Structure, resettlement is a state issue. But, only
a few state governments have come out with a comprehensive R&R policy to resettle
project-affected people.
Thus, due to lack of detailed and comprehensive R&R policy, the process of
resettlement and rehabilitation of uprooted people has been minimal and least
successful (Morse Bread Ford, 1992:: 17). Notwithstanding some efforts by
governments and independent groups over the past decade, data on providing
information the number of people displaced since independence, their current
locations and the changes in the socio-economic status, is almost non-existent. Some
indicative data highlights the severity of the apathy and indifference of official
agencies and the government to take responsibility for those who, in an
overwhelming number of cases have been forced to forgo their ancestral habitats and
experie.1ced social and cultural disrupti_Qn in the past five decades of development.
For example, in the Bhakranangal project, a report prepared by the CSE points out
that, out of 36,000 households displaced by the project, only 12,000 were
rehabilitated. The CSE report further points out that in case of the Ukai project, only
3,500 out of 18,500 ousted families were resettled. In the case of Pong dam, the
number of rehabilitated families was 9,000, out of 33,000 ousted households (CSE:
1985). On the basis of the three examples of Ukai, Bhakrangal and Pong, it can be
said that on an average, only 26.5 per cent oustees have been rehabilitated. In other
40
cases the majority of those displaced by other renowned projects, like Hirakud dam
in Orissa or the Riband dam in Uttar Pradesh, have never been officially resettled.
The other illustrative example is that of the oustees of the Pong dam in
Himachal Pradesh, who were displaced in late 1960s. Out of 33,000 families only
16,000 were found eligible for compensation and in the end only 3,756 family were
moved hundreds of miles to a completely different cultural, linguistic and ecological
zone in Rajsthan. Some. of the land meant for their occupation was already occupied,
while most of the land was uncultivable. Compounding to this, the host community
was not prepared for their arrival and eventually over 75 per cent returned to _, .
Himachal only to find minimal support for their re-establishment (Bhanot and Singh:
1992).
The amount spent on the rehabilitation of oustees is also quite low. A study
conducted by the CSE states that only as little as 1 per cent of the total cost of the
dam project in India has gone towards rehabilitating the DPs (CSE, 1985). In the
SSP, the cost of the temporary accommodation for the staff overseeing the dam
construction at the Kavedia colony, was more than the amount of compensation
allotted for the rehabilitation of some 100,000 persons from the reservoir dam
(Kothari and Bharati: 1984).
Among the reasons for the dismal record of resettlement, the most
fundamental is the disciplinary bias of project designers. Their emphasis has been
mostly on engineering, finance and such other components. Often, the human
dimension is neither recognised nor understood.
41
Many failures of previous resettlement operations are often traceable to
administrative weakness. Traditionally, project authorities have not viewed
resettlement as their responsibility and have tended to dump the job on local
authorities. The local authorities have generally lacked professional c~pacity to cope
with such challenges. Resettlement plans some times developed on adhoc basis.
They were not based on any detailed planned studies indicating the number of people
to be resettled. These numbers were sometimes based on guesswork.
Compensation
It would not be an exaggeration to say that very few resettlement programmes
in the country have adequately compensated all those who are dispossessed of The
question of how oustees will make a living after displacement has been a matter of
lowest concern to planners. Infact, in most cases, the land acquisition act is used to
pay insultingly low cash compensation that is grossly inadequate to restore and
enhance standards of living.
There is enough evidence of delay in the payment of compensation, which is
much below the market rate at the time of displacement. In all cases, land was
acquired at market price at the time the project was cleared. Compensation was given
to them, however, at the time of land acquisition, which may be after a decade. For
instance, incase of Bhakra Dam, land was acquired. at the 1942-47 prices, but the
allotment of new land to some of the oustees was made at the 1952-57 prices, when
the price had risen in the span of the decade (Thukral: 1988).
42
The amount of compensation given to the oustees is arbitrary determined and
often involves recourse to lawyers, middlemen which only the rich oustees can
afford as documented in the case of Sri Sailam (Shiva, et. al, 1991: 214) and Ukai
(Karve and Nimbkar, 1969: 72, Viegas, 1992) points to a glaring instance in case of
Hirakud in Orissa The oustees also have to pay a considerable amount of money as
bribes to government officials to fix what is considered as fair compensation by the
government and to expedite the inadequate payment they are entitled to (Thukral,
1988: 54).
There is also gender bias in form of compensation. Substantial land is often
worked, owned and even inherited by women in many cases, but compensation is
provided to the head of the family or to men. A uniform state regulated patriarchy is
thus forced upon different cultures. Compensation to oustees is limited to individual
landowners, which have land titles. In tribal households and joint families,
households are often registered in the name of one individual, while they are framed
on the basis of nuclear households. Such policy provides the Indian state with the
opportunity to minimise its expenses on compensation (Joshi, 1987~
Cash compensation is paid in lumpsum to the oustees without any advice on
proper investment or help in channelising it towards a new environment.
Agriculturist who have learnt only to depend on the existing natural resources for
their livelihood are left without skills, to subsist in the new environment. Studies
conducted on Sriram Sagar oustees reg~rding utilisation of compensation, point out
that as little as 4 per cent of the oustees brought land, 20 per cent built houses, 26 per
43
cent repaid their old debts and 50 per cent spent on domestic needs such as marriage,
cloth, food etc. Those who spent the c()mpensation money on purchase of land are
big and middle farmers (Shiva, 1991, 214). The same report goes on to state that
after eviction, there is a general trend towards a decline in the income of oustees, and
increase in their indebtedness. It needs to be pointed out that most of the oustees live
in the interior where they have little interaction with the market forces. Their
resettlement only in terms of cash leaves them at the mercy of market forces about
which they known little.
Cash compensation to tribals often result in. more impoverishment. Being
predominantly illiterate and backward, they spent the compensation money on
purchasing watches, transistors, cycles, liquor, gambling. This was the case with
Bhil tribes displaced by Ukai darn in the early 1970s in Gujarat and more recently
those displaced by the Kutku dam in Bihar (Thukral, 1989: 44).
Lack of co-ordination between States
If the project involves more than one state, an entirely new set of problems
anse. Disputes with regard to the distribution of benefits and costs of the
rehabilitation of the ousted population begin. Most often an inter-state tribunal is set
up as in Narmada Sagar Project. In such cases, the plight of the oustees is even worse
because, though each state wants to maximize benefits of the proposed project, no
one wants to share the responsibility of rehabilitating the people consequently
displaced.
44
Land Acquisition Act
Another important problem of displacement is the issue of land acquisition.
The land acquisition act, 1894 (amended in 1984) through which the lands have been
acquired for development projects, was passed by the .colonial government to make it
possible for the state to acquire private land for 'public purpose'. The act provides
for payment of only cash compensation and only to those who have a direct interest
in the title to such land (Vaswani, 1988).
Under the Act, the legal obligations of the project authorities do not go
beyond 'monetary compensation' to a narrowly defined category of project affected
persons (PAPs). The underlying rationale is that the displaced people should be able
to rehabilitate themselves with the money given as compensation. In other words, the .. ·) .
interpretation of resettlement stops at monetary compensation. This, according to the
act, is calculated on the basis of prevailing market price of land and other properties
(Ramanathan, 1996). Secondly, by restricting the entitlements of displaced people to
monetary compensation for land ownership, the act forecloses taking into account
the multiple dimensions of loss dispossession that occur as a result of displacement.
Also cash compensation under the act is based on prevailing market price, which
very often understates the real value of land even in the narrow economic sense.
Thirdly, only those who hold legal title to land are entitled to the
compensation. Those without legal titles (pattas) such as land less agricultural
labourers, artisans, forest produce collectors, encroachers on government land,
forestland and others are not entitled to compensation under the act. Tribals who
45
constitute a major proportion of those displaced and who may have only
customary (right) titles, are denied their due (Singh, 1989, Dhagamswar, 1989).
It is recognised that among the tribals, it is the informal economy that prevails
and the property belongs to the whole community. Very few of them have legal
documents (D'Souza, 1991 ). Besides in many cases, land records are not updated.
Very often it is in the name of dead ancestors, which causes conflict among
descendants who are displaced. Thus, having no occupancy right to land or habitat,
they are not, infact, entitled to compensation under the present law.
Additionally, the multiple and season-specific relationships with the Eco-
system which played a critical role in supporting their life styles were neither ,;
recognised by land acquisition act nor .. compensated. Effectively, the state
intervention and the law have primarily served the interests of injustice rather than
justice.
Consequences of Displacement
The people displaced by development projects must have elsewhere. They
move no choice in the matter. There is a strong element of compulsion in
displacement, as it "affects the entire community. It evicts the literate, the weak, and
strong, skilled and unskilled, poor and wealthy" (Partridge, 1989, 373).
Various studies have shown that involuntary displacement has caused
widespread psychological stress, socio-economic and cultural problems and has
heightened morbidity and mortality (Scudder, 1978, 453-71, Baboo, 1992). When
people are forcefully moved out it causes a profound unraveling of existing patterns
46
of social organisation. Their production system is dismantled, long established
residential communities and settlements are disorganised while kinship groups and
family systems are often scattered. Lives sustaining informal social networks that
provide mutual help are rendered non-functional. Trade linkages between producers
and their customer's base are disrupted and local labour markets are interrupted. ,,
Formal and informal associations, and self-organised services, are wiped out by the
sudden scattering of their membership. Traditional management systems tend to
loose their leaders. The coerced abandonment of symbolic markers (such as ancestral
shrines, graves), or of spiritual context (such as mountains and rivers considered holy
or sacred trails), cut off some of the physical and psychological linkages with the
past and saps at the roots of the people's cultural identity (Cemea, 1996).
The consequences of displacement vary with local circumstances, but there
are basic features these cases share. Cemea opines that the ultimate common factors
underlying the broad spectrum of reported displacement effects are on the set of
impoverishment (Cemea, 1990). The impoverishment process caused by
displacement typically occurs along the following eight crucial dimensions: landless
ness; marginalisation; food insecurity; loss of common property resources (CPR);
increased morbidity and mortality and social disarticulation.
Many sociologist and anthropologists have documented the above eight
qualitative consequences of forced disp)acement. A. survey which was carried out
among tribal households in five villages at Talcher, Orissa (Pandey, 1996) found an
increase in unemployment from 9 per cent to 43.6 per cent, accompanied by a large
47
,, shift from primary to tertiary occupation, and reported reduction in the level of
earning upto 50 to 80 per cent among scheduled tribes and scheduled castes, In
Rengali irrigation project, Orissa, the percentage of land less families after relocation
has doubled (Ota, 1996), while in the coal mining displacements around Singrauli
the proportion of landless people sky rocketed from 20 per cent before displacement
to 72 per cent after displacement (Reddy, 1997).
Another study of seven projects causing displacement during 1950-94 in
Orissa (Pandey et al., 1997) has found-the problem of common property resources
(CPR) in post displacement period. In Rengali project, the access to common grazing
lands and burial grounds, after dislocation has come down from 23.7 per cent to 17.5
per cent.
Forced displacement also tears apart the existing social fabric, disperses and
fragments communities, dismantles the pattern of social organisation and
interpersonal ties{ A detailed sociological study by Nayak (1986) on a dam project in
India found various manifestations qf social arti~ulations without the kinship
systems, such as loosing of intimate bonds, growing alienation and anomie, lower
cohesion in family structures. Some times resettlers obligation towards and
relationship with non-displaced kinsmen were eroded. As a result, participation in-
group activities decreased pro-harvest communal feasts and pilgrimages were
discontinued. A monograph on the Hirakud dam in Orissa, found that displaced
houses whose economic status has been completely shattered as a result of
48
displacement, did not get properly integrated in host villages for many years after
relocation (Baboo, 1992).
The other neglected dimension--of displacement is its adverse impact on
women (Agnihotri, 1996). Their trauma is compounded by the loss of access to fuel,
fodder and food, collection of which inevitably requires greater time and effort.
Additionally, when displaced, most women experienced greater pauperisation and
were confined to the margins of the labour market. Similarly, children are adversely
affected since not only the schooling is less accessible (Mohapatra, 1996) in most
cases but there is also a disintegration in the traditional socialisation process.
It is clear from the above analysis that, despite the enormous problem, the " .
state has not taken the problem seriously. In all the projects, the organisation and
implementation of rehabilitation programme is the least thought out aspect. The
continued existence of the above mentioned problems highlights the absence of R&R
policy, and thus calls for in-depth research which in tum would improve the
formulation of development and resettlement policies.
The oustees who bear the pains never share the gains of development. Thus
critics have argued that displacement caused by large development projects have
actually resulted in a transfer of resources from the weaker sections of society to the
more privileged ones. This has generally been the case with India's development
model. The large development projects particularly mega dams create victims of
development, mainly tribals and other weaker sections of the society. It can be said
that bigger the development projects, greater the centralised control over them. This
49
centralisation has a bias in favour of large landholders, rich farmers, engmeers,
bureaucrats and politicians.
Thus, the development rrojects have done little to alleviate the existing social
inequalities. On the contrary, they further aggravate the already skewed social
structure in favour of the socially, .~conornically and political powerful, thus
throwing to the winds the socialist pretensions laid down in the constitution
50
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