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