DEVELOPMENT AND DISPLACEMENT

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          Infrastructure (irrigation projects, power projects, transport utilities) is key to the development. Infrastructure development has a dual purpose that is on one hand it attracts investment and on the other hand it improves the standard of living. There is a substantial difference between irrigated and non-irrigated agriculture. Energy intensives economic policies and transport throws opportunities.

          Development cannot be achieved without infrastructure. Infrastructure (irrigation projects, power projects, transport utilities) and modern society needs cannot be constructed on the sky; they have to be come on land. Land is not only economic asset but also physical asset. Land is the part of culture or cultural element, people does not easily like to lose land; this contradiction is ivetible.

Approach

          Development is necessary? Development should be move on, without somebody’s land London, Manchester like cities can’t come. Development is not that important. Acquiring land for public purposes like irrigation projects and other development projects besides industrial requirements often becomes controversial due to the problems of displacement. The debate gets murkier as politics permeate into it.

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What happens when people are displaced? Why displacement often turns out into a humanitarian problem?

          Land is a precious natural resource and is main source of livelihood.  Land owners directly eke out their livelihood from the land. The economic and socio-cultural attachment with land is so strong that the displaced go to any extent to defend their right to land. In fact, the land and its owners also provide livelihood for the landless labourers and artisans in the village. A blacksmith, a goldsmith, a shop keeper, a shepherd, a carpenter, a barber, a washer man, a priest etc; survive because of the land and land-owning classes.

          Land acquisition and consequent displacement erode the livelihoods of both the land owners and a majority of the villagers who do not own the land but depend on the village. This fact is the reason why displacement often turns out into a humanitarian problem. Thus the land acquisition policies cannot be driven by crude economics of development alone but should bear a human face.

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Who are beneficiaries?

          People who are displaced are different from the beneficiaries. For example tribal’s deprived from their natural habitats and displaced from their hills and valleys are not the real beneficiaries. The other view is that the people who are deprived of their lands are not the real beneficiaries, then why should they sacrifice.

          They are the major obstacles of the development and we to resolve it. Can’t we can find a balance between development and deprivation & displacement. . The need to strike a balance between development and displacement is often amiss.

How do we achieve the challenges?

          Land is becoming a precious resource now, earlier population and land utilization is very less. Land never has a monetary value and was abundantly available. Today land utilization has increased by many folds and has become precious. Scientific evaluation of land has to be done and judicious & scientific allocations should be made.

          Alternative designs or redesigning of the projects have to be prepared to reduce the displacement without increasing the cost benefit.

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Rehabilitation, what should be the basis?

          Normally the land looser are compensated by land or money. Land holders are displaced from the land and non-land holders are displaced from their livelihood. The rehabilitation policies should be based on the livelihood but not the land.

          Cag in its report said that land is given for SEG on the condition that exports has to be done and employment has to be given to the local people but no exports, employment generation was done by many SEG’s and even in some SEG’s companies does not came to establish.

          Those who have political power will get good rehabilitation while displacement and project designs are designed to benefit them and the common people who have no socio political economic power will be provided normal rehabilitation when compared to them. Rehabilitation should be neutral.

          Improper and inadequate rehabilitation is the cause of growing unrest over the displacement. The 31st report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on rural development   on 'The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation And Resettlement Bill, 2011'  chaired by Sumitra Mahajan extensively discussed the problem across the country.

          The committee observed that the persons displaced on account of major projects including government projects have not been settled or rehabilitated properly. The lands were acquired at a nominal price. Affected people lost their livelihood and community living. The apprehensions of the displaced population stem out of this experience of the affected population across the country. But, this problem is certainly not insurmountable.

          The task therefore is to evolve a strategy where the developmental needs of the people are fulfilled without mortgaging the welfare of the affected people. 

          A voluntary displacement can be ensured if a person is assured of a minimum income equivalent to what he was earning prior to acquisition, if not more. Relief and rehabilitation should be provided for the entire community under the zone of influence. 

          A monitoring committee comprising the representatives of the affected communities should be constituted to oversee the process of land acquisition and subsequent rehabilitation process. This is essential to infuse confidence among the affected people. 

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          Any displacement is always associated with the psychological trauma. Wherever possible, the authorities can even plan for complete relocation of the village as a unit to some other location with better social infrastructure. Ensure that the resettled population in the new village or colony can secure for themselves a reasonable standard of community life and can attempt to minimise the trauma involved in displacement. In case of acquisition of land for irrigation, the rehabilitation and resettlement should be completed at least six months prior to submergence of the lands proposed to be so acquired.

          Even if the land acquisition is for a public purpose, the process cannot be dismissed as a mere commercial engagement between the State and the citizen. It’s unbecoming of a welfare State to ask a section of people to sacrifice their welfare for a development that shall not reach them, however imperative it may be. Instead, the governments can take the mandatory relocation of villages due to displacement as an opportunity to create model villages or colonies.

          Such a model village or a colony of relocated displaced people can for instance, consist of infrastructure for improvement of environment like waste water treatment facility, sewage treatment, landfill sites and affluent treatment plants and creation of green belts, parks and gardens. 

          Social infrastructure like community-cum-marriage hall with open space and outdoor arrangement and vegetable and milk booth and shopping complex should be provided along with the other social amenities like schools, hospitals, improved housing etc.

          The objective of such a strategy is to provide for infrastructural facilities and basic minimum amenities so that the resettled population can acquire for themselves a reasonable standard of community life and can attempt to minimise the trauma involved in displacement. 

          Such a humane approach to the problem would convert the involuntary displacement into a voluntary displacement while speeding up the process of development all over. It will bring political accolades to the people in power and shall not leave any scope for political opposition to fish in the troubled waters. The effort may be costlier but certainly not an impossible task.    

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