Study on Development Projects, Displaced Tribals & Their Living Conditions

Abstract

Economic development has been and will continue to remain the national priority. To accelerate the pace of growth, infrastructure development projects have been taken up and expected to come up in a large scale in different sectors in coming years. But, instituting many of these mega projects require land and to meet the land requirement of these projects, displacement of people seems an unavoidable prerequisite. Displacement remains a reality in the current development scenario and more such events can be expected in coming days with the rising aspiration for higher economic growth. Since Independence, many of such infrastructure development initiatives have been taken up at the national level, like development of industrial corridors, hydro-power projects, irrigation projects etc. The socio-economic development of tribals and the rate of displacement in different projects shows that the tribals have been facing a disproportionate share of displacement in the overall process. In most of these mega project, tribals remain the major sufferer of development induced displacement whereas their share in the benefit of the project remain neglected. Different studies highlight how tribal families suffer due to such development projects because of poor implementation of safeguard policies to rehabilitate and resettle them. Their socio-cultural life and economic environment are very often neglected in the process. Displacement of tribals is not only their physically displacement from their homeland, but displacement from their environment, social belongingness, economic practices & cultural life which are immeasurable and difficult to compensate. Physical relocation of the displaced tribals normally considered primary, rather than restoration of their livelihoods and living conditions. But appropriate and feasible R & R policy could have minimized the plight of the people and could have been helpful to improve their condition in the post-displacement situation. Non-adoption of required measures for rehabilitation and resettlement made the life of the oustees measurable. The critical requisites that are important for the survival of the displaced tribals, i.e., employment, Land for production and access to other resources were not focused appropriately in the post-displacement periods. Thus, even decades after their displacement, they are not able to come out of the distress situation. The current study is innovative and exclusive in many respects to previous studies. The study examines the condition of the tribals, after decades of displacement, in two different project typologies, i.e., displacement caused due to hydro-power projects and displacement for the establishment of large scale industrial units. The study compares the socio-economic status of displaced tribal families with the non-displaced tribals, belonging to same village / location before evacuation. The overall objective of the study is to understand the current living condition of the displaced (after years of resettlement) and affected tribals, contributions made by the project for which they were displaced were also taken in to account. So, the study is an attempt to understand the overall socio-economic growth of the tribals, in two different set-ups (displaced and non-displaced) and to examine how far the project, for which these tribals were displaced or affected, has contributed in their development. The study finds that it is not only displaced but condition of non-displaced families is also more or less same. Acquisition of productive land can be attributed as one of the reasons but it is not the prime reason. Had displacement been the sole factor of impoverishment, similar situation would not have prevailed in the non-displaced tribal villages. In industrial projects, resettled oustees observed comparatively in a better living condition in comparison to hydro-power or irrigation projects. One of the reasons has been development of market mechanisms around the industrial units and availability of different employment opportunities which are relatively remunerative than the agricultural labour. So, regional development scenario play an important role in the overall development of the displaced tribals rather than only displacement and related rehabilitation. It is inferred that had there been better economic growth in the region, the condition of the project oustees would have different from the present condition.