Running head:- Development induced displacement and its impact on tribal farmers
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Development induced displacement and its impact on
displaced farmers
Mahendrabhai M. chaudhari
2
Development induced displacement
Development induced Displacement and its impact on Farmers.
Introduction
Development is a procedure of arranged institutional change to achieve better alteration between
human needs and goals at one side and social plans and projects on other side. It is translating
economic progress into better living conditions for people in society. Human beings are progressive by
the nature and he develops himself and his surrounding with his abilities. After the industrial revolution
there is a spread of the notion of economic development. In this race of development countries started
infrastructural development, they started development of heavy industries; irrigation projects, port and
harbor were constructed. In this race of development, man ignoring the social cost which the people
pay for this development.
As human kind has technologically advanced, there are various changes occurred. With the emergence
of state, it is responsible for the development in all aspects of the country and its people, including the
agricultural development, industrial development as well as development in the lifestyle of its citizen’s
lies mostly with the state. For the development of the various industries and improve in the food
production water are essential for it. So, policy makers and technocrats are looking dams as a perfect
model for the water conservation and timely use of it when it requires. Most of the European nations so
called developed nations has commence with the building of dams in the 19th century itself, and come
up with some of the biggest structures like Hoover Dam of USA, Grande Dixenc dam of Switzerland.
It doesn’t mean that the invasion of dams is in the recent years, but the invasion of dams is ancient. In
the ancient literature we can find some evidence that there are barriers on the rivers and there are also
some evidence of existence of canal and wells. But after the modernization in science and technology it
also applies to dams and now a day dam’s structure became huge like a pyramid.
In India the construction of dams was introduced by the Britishers, they were took this initiatives to
develop agriculture sector. They built many dams in India(for ex., Mullaiperiyar on river Periyar,
Krishna Raja Sagara dan on river Kavery and it was very useful during that time and today this dams
are also exist. Our first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who was strong believer of Russian
model of development, under his guidance the construction of dams begins. As he believes that the
“Dams are the Modern temple of India”. There are more than 5100 large and medium dams in India,
and Maharashtra has maximum number of dams in India because of its geography and agriculture
consider as main occupation.
When we talk about the development how can we forget about the agriculture sector? Agriculture
3
Development induced displacement
sector plays an important role in countries development. But as the vision of Nehru that big dams and
mega development projects are modern temple of development, this is partially false. Most of the
farmers in the country surrender their land because of the development projects, and they have to pay
price on the name of development. Most of them are small and marginal farmers (owned around 2 to 5
acres of land) and they do not have any other kind of livelihood options such as, jobs, business etc.;
they depends only on the land but due to LPG(Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) and
industrial revolution industries developed drastically. Big corporate need land for the settle down their
industries, and finally farmers are evacuating from their land.
Statement of problem:-
“Agriculture connects economic growth and the rural poor”, this statement is very true, but is it really
apply on the present condition of agriculture sector and the farmers? If yes, than, what is the policies
and mechanisms for the upliftment of the poor and marginal farmers? They are still loses their land on
the name of so called development and the interest of the nation. In india there are no proper policies
for the resettlement and rehabilitation, there are some recommendation for the rehabilitation and
resettlement policies for the displaced people in the Indian constitution but the policy maker are failed
to do so. The states are implementing their own framed policies for the displaced peoples. In the india
there are Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh only two state who has policies for resettlement and
rehabilitation.
Development and displacement both looks contradictory terms to each other, but they are interrelated
terms. After the independence more than 55 million people are displaced because of the development
programmes, this rate of displacement is thrice higher than the people migrate while partition of India
and Pakistan. Poor and tribal farmers who had paid highest price for the development of the nation,
because around 90% of the coal, and around 50% of the minerals are in the land which is highly fertile
4
Development induced displacement
or forest area and it’s owned by the tribal farmers. They have to leave their land because they do not
have much bargaining power; they are powerless, voiceless and the most important factor for this
oppression is, they are not aware about the education and their rights. Tribal’s who are only depends on
forest resource and land, because of development project tribal farmers lose their land. After the
displacement farmers do not get proper rehabilitation and also rebate of their losses land, they have to
migrate from one place to another for the search of livelihood, this create a severe problems among the
farmers and other displaced people.
There are various government laws which are exploitative in the nature for the farmers, such as, the
Land Acquisition Act 1894, which are amended in 1984 and later in 2015. The small and marginal
farmers are main losers in the process of development, because they do not get anything in the form of
compensation. And their voices are also not heard by the policy makers as well as government officials.
The main reason behind the anger of the displaced farmers is the promises which are given to them
while the displacement; these promises are only a paper tiger. If we talked about the small and
marginal farmers how can we forget about the Tribal farmers and Dalit farmers who are the major
victims of the displacement?
There are some tribal welfare laws such as the PESA (Panchayat extension to schedule areas) 1996, the
forest right act 2006 and the fifth schedule of the constitution have failed to protect tribal rights.
According to article 48 of the constitution said that “states should promote the interests of scheduled
tribe and scheduled caste and protect them from social injustice and all form of exploitation.”
according to the colonial land acquisition act 1894 the CPR(common property resources) is consider as
a state property. And in the tribal community they hold more CPR than the individual property, so in
the case of the land acquisition only personal land is entitled for compensation not CPR. It’s creating
great difficulties for tribal farmers to displace from the place because they have to leave their land and
they do not get anything as a form of compensation. The state which is responsible for the proper
5
Development induced displacement
implementation of the laws, they giving the rich resourceful land to the multinational companies for the
use of natural resources on the price of thousands or millions of the tribal’s lives.
After the policy of LPG (liberalization, privatization and globalization) the scenario of development
had changed, various private multi-national companies come and settled down on the name of
development. The various MNC's, SEZ, and some other private corporation are came and settled down
in India. They need land which is full of natural recourses and easy to access it. It directly affects to the
farmers because they, who are been living on the land which are full of natural resources. There are
also a waste deforestation because of the land require for the settlement of the MNC's, or SEZ's.
Understanding of key words:-
Development:-
Todaro define development as “Development is not purely an economic phenomenon but rather a
multi-dimensional process involving reorganization and reorientation of entire economic and social
system; Development is process of improving the quality of all human lives with three equally
important aspects i.e. i) Raising peoples’ living levels, ii) Creating conditions conducive to the growth
of peoples’ self-esteem, iii) Increasing peoples’ freedom to choose by enlarging the range of their
choice variables”.
Development that is likely to achieve lasting satisfaction of human needs and improvement of the
quality of life. We can also say that development means to improve lifestyle of the poorest of poor
person of world.
Displacement:-
Displacement involves physical eviction from a dwelling and the expropriation of productive land and
other assets to make possible an alternative use. According to Cernea, displacement can start before
people are physically evicted from the residence by legally stopping construction, entrepreneurial
6
Development induced displacement
investment, and public infrastructure investments. This makes households suffer economically before
actual removal from their land/houses and eventually leads them into impoverishment.
According to Cernea & Kanbur displacement can be experienced in many forms including the people
who realise less benefit as a result of development process and those who face severe consequences
and for those individuals and communities who involuntarily move leaving behind homes, networks,
jobs, social capital and emotional ties to place.
Literature review
Arundhati Roy (1999) the millions of displaced people do not exist anymore. When history is written
they would not be in it, not even as statistics. Some of them have subsequently been displaced three
and four times.... True, they are not being annihilated or taken to gas chambers, but I can warrant that
the quality of their accommodation is worse than in any concentration camp of the Third Reich. They
are not captive, but they re-define the meaning of liberty and still the nightmare does not end. They
continue to be uprooted even from their hellish hovels by government bulldozers ..... The millions of
displaced people in India are nothing but refugees of an unacknowledged war. ....
In the essay the cost of living she mentioned that Big Dams are to a Nation's 'Development' what
Nuclear Bombs are to its Military Arsenal. They're both weapons of mass destruction. They're both
weapons Governments use to control their own people. Both Twentieth Century emblems that mark a
point in time when human intelligence has outstripped its own instinct for survival. They're both
malignant indications of civilisation turning upon itself. They represent the severing of the link, not just
the link - the understanding - between human beings and the planet they live on. They scramble the
intelligence that connects eggs to hens, milk to cows, food to forests, water to rivers, air to life and the
earth to human existence.
Parshuram Ray(July, 2000) said that “The actual number of people displaced by dams and other
development projects has been quite controversial. Walter Fernandes, S.C. Das and Sam Rao had put
7
Development induced displacement
the number of displaced people by dam projects at 21 million a decade ago. But N.C. Saxena, the
presents Secretary to the Planning Commission is reported to have said in an open meeting that the
number of development induced displaced people since independence is more than 50 million and most
of them have not been resettled. A review by the World Bank notes that an average of 13000 people is
displaced by each new large dam constructed currently. By this estimate, the number of people
displaced by 3000 + large dams would be over 39 million. According to another detailed study of 54
large dams done by Delhi based Indian Institute of Public Administration, the average number of
population displaced by a large dam is 44182.”
“Displacement from their traditional habitations leaves them under acute trauma and uncertainty – there is
institution in India that is interested in alleviating indescribable human sufferings of the tribals left to
struggle for survival with any dignity.”
Jose Murickan, M.K. George, K.A. Emmanuel, Jose Boban, Prakash Pillai R.(2003) emphasis that
‘displacement is not a recent phenomena and said there is a evidence of the development induced
displacement during the era of Guptas from 3rd to 6th century A.D. it also seems during the Mughal
period and British period, after the post-independence rate of displacement is rise on the name of
national development. Much of the 19th century displacement is process induced rather than project
induced, but post independence displacements are project induced rather than process induced.’
Bogumil Terminski(May,2003) he said that “Not only is development-induced displacement a
widespread, and growing, phenomenon, but evidence suggests that while the beneficiaries of
development are numerous, the costs are being borne disproportionately by the poorest and most
marginalized populations. In India, for example, one study calculated that 2 percent of the total
population had been displaced by development projects in the first forty years of the country’s
independence (1951-1990). Of those displaced, however, 40 percent were tribal people though they
8
Development induced displacement
comprise only 8 percent of the population. As author Arundhati Roy observed, “The ethnic ‘otherness’
of their victims takes some of the pressure off the nation builders. It’s like having an expense account.
Someone else pays the bills.”
Lancy Lobo and Shashikant Kumar(2009), mentioned that “There are two types of displacement
voluntary and involuntary. In voluntary, people move away for reason ranging from better economic
opportunities to a safe social or natural environment. Involuntary displacement is caused by a variety of
factors such as natural disaster, ethics, religious or political conflict and development projects.”
“Displacement is deemed to be a necessary price to pay for development. For whose instance property
acquired and people are displaced, for them development means only economic growth but others who
viewed that development not only as economic growth but primarily as improvement of the standard of
living of the whole population. In that sense, displacement is not an economic issue alone, but is to a
great extent a question of human rights. Besides, displacement and rehabilitation are to be viewed not
as one time event but as process that begins as soon as the project is announced and continues for
several years after persons are resettled.”
Rajashree Mohanty (sept-oct. 2011) said that “Most of the development projects particularly in the
State of Orissa were constructed in areas dominated by the tribal, leading to displacement of people
from their homeland. The rehabilitation measures extended by the project authorities have so far
remained very nominal.”.
Significance or need of the Study
This research is basically on the tribal farmers who are the displaced by the development program, so it
may help to that researcher who wants to study on the displaced tribal farmers. This study also include
the socio-economic condition of the tribal farmers, so it may help to analyse the rehabilitation policies
of the government and it implication on the ground.
9
Development induced displacement
After the independence there are more than 50 million people who are displaced because of the
development plans this rate of displacement is higher than the number of population displace during
the time of India's partition. People who are displaced, most of them are poor rural people who are
asset less they don’t owned land or any other property; they are small farmers or labourer. The tribal’s
who are 8.08% in the total population are estimate around 40% are suffered with the displacement.
Dalit are 20% in the total displacement remaining 40% are other poor rural people. So, it's clear that
mostly powerless and voiceless people are displaced and they who are paying price on the name of
national development. In the most of the development programmes such as, Sardar Sarovar dam, in
Orissa displacement by the VEDANTA, they are tribal’s only. So, it is clear that the displacement rate
among the tribal peoples is rise day by day because of natural resources and development projects.
Major problem in the process of displacement is absence of the rehabilitation law or policies of
government. This absence of policy causes around one third of the total displaced persons are resettled
partially.
Methodology:-
RESEARCH DESIGN
This research would be qualitative and quantitative or mixed type. The study would be exploratory and
descriptive in nature. It is the fact finding study where effects of displacement on the tribal farmer’s
socio-economic condition would be studied through personal interviews and also through the group
discussions.
Hence, this study is proposed with following objective.
Objective of the Study
To understand process of rehabilitation of displaced farmers.
10
Development induced displacement
To identified the problem of farmers who are displaced by developmental work.
To understand the change in socio-economic condition of the displaced farmers.
To understand what kind of compensation farmers get in the process of displacement.
With these objective the study is taken out the Sardar Sarovar Reservoir, which is choose for the study
is constructed in 2000-01, it is fall under the large project, because the height of Sardar Sarovar dam is
138.98 meters and water storage capacity of the dam is around 9.5 km3 (7,700,000 acre-ft ).
Area of study
Research area of this study would be the villages which are displaced because of the Sardar Sarovar
Yojana located in Narmada district of Guajrat
Sampling method
The technique would be used in this particular research would be cluster approach, where the list of
fully submerged villages and partially submerged villages data would be collected from the
government departments. From clusters of displaced villages one village ( from where the most of the
households were land owners) would be selected for the study. Or it may be the 20 to 30 percent of
farmer’s households from the one village, who are displaced by Sardar sarovar development program.
Tools for data collection
The group discussion formed the first step in the process of primary data collection. The major
areas covered under schedule are as follows.
On the basis of Land holding
Age group wise
Social status wise
11
Development induced displacement
This study is an ethnographic study so data would be collect with the help of structured
interview schedule. Areas covered under schedule are as follows.
Personal information of the respondents.
Family and social background
socio-economic condition before and after displacement
Assets owned/lost in the process of displacement
Primary data would be collect with the help of questionnaire and secondary data which would be
collected from various sources of information such as library, internet and from the various government
departments etc.
Data collection and analysis
Data would be collected through the group discussion and through the personal interviews, after the
completion of data collection it would be carefully computerised in the excel sheet or SPSS sheet,
which are the standard tools for the data collection. Than data would be analysed to using SPSS or
WORD EXEL or it would be also analyse through statistical and descriptive technique.
Tentative Timeline for Thesis:-
[Link] WORK UNDERTAKEN TIME PERIOD
1 Research Proposal July-August 1ST WEEK
2 Course Work September-2019
3 Literature review October-January 2020
4 Tools preparation for the Data Collection February- March 2020
5 Data Collection April-June 2020
12
Development induced displacement
6 Data analysis and Interpretation July- October 2020
7 Research submission March 2021
13
Development induced displacement
Reference:-
1. Acquisition of land: development, displacement and human right
([Link]
2. Arundhati roy (1999), ‘the greater common good’.
3. Bogumil Terminski(May,2003), “Development-induced displacement and resettlement:
theoretical frameworks and current challenges”.
4. Cernea, M.M, (2003), “For a New Economics of Resettlement; A sociological Critic of
Compensation Principle”, International Science Journal 175 Blackwell. Paris
5. Cernea, M.M, (2000), “Impoverishment Risks, Risk Management, and Reconstruction: A model
of Population Displacement and Resettlement”.
6. Jose Murickan, M.K. George, K.A. Emmanuel, Jose Boban, Prakash Pillai R.(2003)
“Development induced Displacement”(case of Kerala).
7. Lancy Lobo and Shashikant Kumar(2009). Land Acquisition, Displacement and Resettlement
in Gujarat 1947-2004, Sage publications, Los Angles, London, New Delhi, Singapor.
8. Parshuram Ray(July, 2000) “Development Induced Displacement in India”.
9. Rajashree Mohanty.(sapt-oct. 2011) “Impact of Development Project on the Displaced Tribals :
A Case Study of a Development Project in Eastern India”.
10. Scott Leckie Land Solutions for Climate Displacement Development-Induced Displacement
and Resettlement New perspectives on persisting problems Edited by Irge Satiroglu and Narae
ChoiRoutledge Studies in Development, Displacement and Resettlement
11. ‘Tribal: Victims of Development Projects- India's forced Displacement policy and practice’
( htt://[Link]/).
